The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a build in U.S. crude oil and petroleum stockpiles in the week to Sept. 13.
U.S. crude oil inventories, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, climbed by 1.1 million barrels from the week prior to 417.1 million barrels, according to the agency's Sept. 18 "Weekly Petroleum Status Report." Total gasoline inventories climbed by 781,000 barrels to 229.7 million barrels, while distillate inventories climbed by 437,000 barrels to 136.7 million barrels.

Total U.S. crude oil inputs declined 4.5% on the week to 16.7 million barrels per day for a trailing four-week average of 17.5 million bbl/d, down 0.7% from the same period a year ago but 6.3% above the five-year average. The EIA pegged U.S. refinery utilization at 91.2%, down from the year-ago level of 95.4% but up from the five-year average of 91.0%, with PADD 1 utilization pegged at 67.4%.
On June 21, a fire broke out at a 335,000-bbl/d refinery operated by Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc. in PADD 1, destroying one of the complex's alkylation units. Two weeks before the fire, one of the plant's fluid catalytic cracking units, which converts high-boiling, high-molecular-weight hydrocarbon fractions into products such as gasoline, reportedly had been shut down. The company announced June 26 that it would shut down the complex and prepare it for sale.
In late July, Valero Energy Corp. executives said the company was supplying the U.S. East Coast market from its 220,000-bbl/d Pembroke refinery in the U.K. in the wake of the disaster.

Meanwhile, total U.S. gasoline production was above historical averages. Finished motor gasoline production was down 2.5% from the prior week to bring the trailing four-week average to 10.2 million bbl/d, up 1.7% from the year-ago level and up 3.8% from the five-year average.
Distillate production declined 4.3% on the week, bringing the trailing four-week average to 5.3 million bbl/d, down 2.7% from the same week a year ago but up 5.7% versus the five-year average.

