U.S. gasoline inventories have risen in recent weeks after falling to their lowest level this year in May, thanks to purchases in Europe on the East Coast, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Tuesday.
The country’s gasoline stocks stood at 219.452 million barrels at the end of the first week of July, up from 219.456 million at the end of June, according to EIA data. Weekly volume rose steadily in the first three weeks of June after falling to 216.07 million barrels at the end of May, eight percent below the average for the same period over the past five years and the lowest so far in 2023, according to official figures.
The EIA credited the uptick in European imports to the East Coast, where fuel consumption is typically higher than in other regions of the US. The shift to Europe has been driven by higher gas prices and lower transportation costs, he said.
East Coast gasoline inventories rose to 55.2 million barrels at the end of July 7, from 56.459 million at the end of June, according to the EIA bulletin. Weekly inventories in the region rose steadily from the second week of May to the third week of June.
But before last month’s recovery, total East Coast gasoline inventories were 15 percent below the previous five-year average at the end of the May review period. “After May 26, however, both US and East Coast inventories increased,” the EIA said.
“U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose 3 percent, or 5.9 million barrels, to 222.0 million barrels on June 23, about the same as at the same time last year. East Coast gasoline inventories rose 2.4 million barrels (5 percent) over the same period to 55.7 million barrels, which is 2.3 million barrels (4 percent) more than at the same time last year.
East Coast inventories of refined oil rebounded despite “refinery issues,” he said.
“At the Phillips 66 refinery in Bayway, New Jersey, the fluid catalytic cracker, used primarily to produce additional gasoline in refining, went offline and the outage will reduce gasoline production by 100,000 barrels per day (b/d), according to trade press reports,” the EIA said.
“Reports indicate that repairs will be made to the FCC in the coming weeks and gasoline production should increase once the unit is back online,” he added. Phillips 66 Co. has not posted any reboot history.
The EIA said: “Our data indicate that U.S. East Coast gasoline imports have increased since March, following seasonal trends and reaching 823,000 b/d in June, the highest monthly average (based on the four-week moving average) since July 2019. The East Coast mainly gets its gasoline imports from Europe, which rose by 173,000 b/d between March and June, the data showed by Vortexa Annalys.”
The rally was driven primarily by rising gas prices on the East Coast. Regular gasoline averaged 342 cents per gallon in June and May and 347 cents per gallon in April, the highest since September 2022, according to the EIA database.
In contrast, the national average for regular gasoline was 259 cents per gallon in July, 257 in May and 274 in April.
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