Houston — US fuel oil stocks for the week ended September 14 declined slightly, brushing off an uptick in production and high imports, US Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.
Domestic stocks totaled 27.841 million barrels, a draw of 461,000 barrels from the previous week. Inventories fell in all three major US regions for the first time since the week ended June 8, data showed.
US Gulf Coast stocks fell 287,000 barrels from the previous week to 14.804 million barrels. West Coast stocks totaled 4.706 million barrels, a draw of 270,000 barrels from the previous week. Atlantic Coast stocks showed a draw of only 37,000 barrels from the previous week to 6.726 million barrels.
US fuel oil stocks have seen a decline of 9.219 million barrels since the same time in 2017. Backwardation in global fuel oil swap curves has discouraged storage of fuel oil, sources have said.
US production of fuel oil jumped 12% from the previous week to 413,000 b/d, the highest output has been since it averaged 469,000 b/d the week ended August 10.
Imports of fuel oil into the US fell by 2% week on week to 323,000 b/d. Despite the slight decline, the level of imports was well above the year-to-date 2018 average of around 240,000 b/d, EIA data showed.
