USGC gasoline inventories fall 277,000 barrels on week amid higher demand: EIA

Houston — Gasoline inventories on the US Gulf Coast fell 277,000 barrels to about 93 million barrels in the week ended February 14, Energy Information Administration data showed Thursday.

This was the fourth consecutive decrease after reaching a historical high of 98.8 million barrels.

The 196,000 b/d increase in total demand, measured as product supply, may have helped the draw in inventories. The current demand level is 8.9 million b/d, close to the average for the last five years at this time of the year, but 118,000 b/d higher than a year before.

US Gulf Coast refineries this year are running at higher rates than last year for this time.

Refinery utilization dropped on the week to 91.3% from 91.7%. Last year at this time, refineries ran at 89%, and over the last five years, the average utilization was 88%. Meanwhile, USGC total gasoline production fell 100,000 b/d on the week to 2.2 million b/d, EIA data showed.

Planned and unplanned outages on secondary gasoline producer units could be a possible reason behind this.