The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a large draw in U.S. petroleum and crude oil stockpiles for the week to Aug. 30.
U.S. crude oil inventories, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, declined by 4.8 million barrels from the week prior to 423.0 million bbl, according to the agency's Sept. 5 "Weekly Petroleum Status Report." Total gasoline inventories fell by 2.4 million bbl to 229.6 million bbl, while distillate inventories declined by 2.5 million bbl to 133.5 million bbl.

Total U.S. crude oil inputs declined 0.2% on the week to 17.4 million barrels per day for a trailing-four-week average of 17.5 million bbl/d, down 1.3% from the same period a year ago but 4.1% above the five-year average. The EIA pegged U.S. refinery utilization at 94.8%, down from the year-ago level of 96.6% but up from the five-year average of 91.0%, with PADD 1 utilization pegged at 69.1%.
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 0.2% from the prior week to bring the trailing-four-week average to 10.3 million bbl/d, up 1.6% from the year-ago level and up 2.9% from the five-year average.
Distillate production declined 0.8% on the week, bringing the trailing-four-week average to 5.2 million bbl/d, down 2.3% from the same week a year ago but up 3.6% versus the five-year average.

