US propane and propylene stocks declined 771,000 barrels to 78.4million barrels for the reporting week ending December 12, Energy InformationAdministration data showed Wednesday.
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Register NowStill, that pales against the five-year average draw of 2.2 millionbarrels for the comparable reporting periods.
Gulf Coast stocks saw the highest regional decline, falling 944,000barrels to 42.6 million barrels. That contrasts with the five-year average inregional inventories at this time of year of 29.1 million barrels, as a resultof the natural gas liquids production surge in the US.
Midwest stocks last week rose by 403,000 barrels to 26.5 million barrels,compared to a 988,000-barrel decline in the comparable week last year and a879,000-barrel average decline for the previous five years.
The Midwest typically sees higher seasonal demand for propane during thewinter, when it is used for heating and crop drying, but moderate weather hasheld back heating demand for propane.
Atlantic Coast stocks declined 169,000 barrels to 5.4 million barrels.
US stocks of propylene for nonfuel use increased 71,000 barrels week onweek to 3.3 million barrels.
Imports over the reporting week rose 28,000 b/d to 128,000 b/d, while exports stayed flat at 445,000 b/d.
Implied demand increased almost 11% week on week to 1.45 million b/d.
--Zahid Afzal, zahid.afzal@platts.com--Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine.fraser@platts.com