The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported a large draw in U.S. petroleum and crude oil stockpiles for the week to Aug. 23.
The agency's "Weekly Petroleum Status Report" released Aug. 28 showed that U.S. crude oil inventories, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, declined by 10.0 million barrels from the week prior to 427.8 million bbl, while total gasoline inventories fell by 2.1 million bbl to 232.0 million bbl. Distillate inventories declined by 2.1 million bbl to 136.1 million bbl.

Total U.S. crude oil inputs declined 1.7% on the week to 17.4 million barrels per day for a trailing four-week average of 17.4 million bbl/d, down 1.8% from the same period a year ago but 2.4% above the average seen during the previous five years. The EIA pegged U.S. refinery utilization at 95.2%, down from the year-ago level of 96.3% but up from the five-year average of 94.4%, with PADD 1 utilization falling to 66.9%.
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. Ahead of the disaster, one of the plant's fluid catalytic cracking units, which converts high-boiling, high-molecular-weight hydrocarbon fractions into products such as gasoline, had reportedly been shut down for two weeks due to a prior fire. The company announced June 26 that it will 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 up 1.2% from the prior week to bring the trailing four-week average to 10.2 million bbl/d, up 0.8% from the year-ago level and up 1.6% from the five-year average.
Distillate production declined 2.8% on the week, bringing the trailing four-week average to 5.2 million bbl/d, down 1.5% from the same week a year ago but up 3.2% versus the five-year average.

