US propane and propylene stocks rose 2.6 million barrels to 56.2 million barrels for the reporting week ending June 27, almost level with last year's stocks, Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday.
In 2013 the stocks were at 56.3 million barrels for the reporting week ended June 28.
Average weekly build in June was 2.6 million barrels, 13% above the average weekly build in June 2013.
The build was much smaller than expectations since there was some consensus among market participants that Enterprise Product Partners had scheduled planned maintenance on its Houston Ship Channel export facility, shutting its propane loading in the week of June 23.
But market sources said Enterprise did not shut completely for maintenance that week.
"They had a ship running late that they let load, so I think they shut only one unit down and took the other down after that ship finished loading toward the end of the week on Friday or Saturday," a source said.
The vessel lifted 550,000 barrels of propane, the source said.
The other export terminal operated by Targa Resources Partners was also heard to load smaller Handysize vessels in addition to larger vessels during the week, also impacting stocks, according to another market source.
For the latest week, the Gulf Coast had the largest regional increase with a 1.9 million-barrel build to 32.1 million barrels, which was higher than the comparable week of 2013 when the stocks were 31.5 million barrels.
Midwest stocks rose 386,000 barrels to 17.5 million barrels.
Atlantic Coast stocks rose 143,000 barrels to 4.2 million barrels.
US stocks of propylene for nonfuel use increased 66,000 barrels to 4.1 million barrels.
Total imports during the reporting week increased 4,000 barrels to 57,000 barrels.
