US oil stocks rose sharply over the past week as the tanker fleet from Saudi Arabia, which was sent on the days of production volume wars, began to evacuate crude oil.
According to the records, total crude oil and product inventories outside the strategic oil reserve rose by a record increase of approximately 15 million barrels to 1.41 billion barrels.
Crude oil stocks increased by approximately 8 million barrels, reaching 534 million barrels, and reversed the self-developing production decline and four-week inventory accumulation.
Increasing crude inventories were triggered by a sharp acceleration in customs clearance import volume. This was caused by Saudi crude-laden tankers, fixed to US about halfway in March and at the peak of the volume war in April.
US crude oil imports accelerated with 2 million barrels (bpd) per day; this was the biggest one-week increase since 1996 and added an additional 14 million barrels to oil supply over the seven days that ended on May 22.
Crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia have accelerated with the biggest weekly increase since 2013 and the fastest import rate of almost four years, 950,000 bpd.
If this import is part of a one-time wave or it is the legacy of the war between Saudi Arabia and Russia within March and April, it will not prevent the market, which is rapidly balanced with the current conditions, to reach its goals.
It is estimated that US domestic crude oil production fell 11.4 million bpd again last week and sharply decreased from 13.0 million bpd in early March.
Crude oil inventories in Oklahoma Cushing fell more than 3 million barrels last week, while stocks decreased by 12 million barrels as of the third consecutive week.
Stored oil volume in Cushing from 83% at the beginning of May dropped to 68%. Local tank farms have a storage capacity of up to 25 million barrels.
Refined product inventories continued to increase and last week rose by 7 million barrels to a record 880 million barrels.
Gasoline stocks have remained stable at 255 million barrels, while 24 million barrels over the level of last year and 34 million barrels above the 10-year seasonal average.
Distilled stocks continued to increase and increased more than 5 million barrels. 42 million barrels have increased since the economy began to crash. Swollen distilled stocks are 39 million barrels above last year’s level and 37 million barrels above the 10-year seasonal average. Since these stocks depend on the level of production and freight, it is increased with economic stagnation. Likewise, jet fuel production was restricted, with a large part of the aviation industry remaining closed and stocks were swollen because the surplus product got into the jet diesel pool.
The total volume of products supplied to the domestic market was about 16.0 million bpd last week, below 16.6 million bpd in the previous week, became much lower than 13.8 million bpd by early April.
