U.S. OIL INVENTORIES 441.5 MBBL DOWN 500 TBBL

OGJ - US crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, decreased by 500,000 bbl for the week ended Dec. 14, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration.

At 441.5 million bbl, US crude oil inventories are about 7% above the 5-year average for this time of year, the report indicated.

Separately, the American Petroleum Institute said its own estimates showed US crude inventories increased by 3.5 million bbl last week.

EIA said total motor gasoline inventories increased by 1.8 million bbl and are about 3% above the 5-year range. Finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories both increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 4.2 million bbl last week and are about 11% below the 5-year average for this time of year.

Propane-propylene inventories decreased by 3.3 million bbl last week and are about 6% below the 5-year average for this time of year, EIA said.

US refinery inputs averaged 17.4 million b/d for the week ended Dec. 14, about 28,000 b/d less than the previous week's average. Refineries operated at 95.4% of capacity.

Gasoline production decreased, averaging 10.3 million b/d. Distillate fuel production decreased, averaging 5.4 million b/d.

US crude oil imports averaged 7.4 million b/d, up by 30,000 b/d from the previous week. Over the last 4 weeks, crude oil imports averaged 7.5 million b/d, 1.6% more than the same period last year. Total motor gasoline imports averaged 595,000 b/d. Distillate fuel imports averaged 139,000 b/d.

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Earlier: 

2018, December, 24, 11:55:00 U.S. OIL CAPEX DOWN PLATTS - Three aggressive independent Permian Basin upstream operators released capital budgets for 2019 in the last few days that are lower than either prior expectations or actual 2018 spending by at least 12% to 15%, as corporate executives attributed reduced activity to the recent plunge in oil prices.

2018, December, 24, 11:15:00 U.S. RIGS UP 9 TO 1,080 BHGE - U.S. Rig Count is up 9 rigs from last week to 1,080, with oil rigs up 10 to 883 and gas rigs down 1 to 197. Canada Rig Count is down 43 rigs from last week to 131, with oil rigs down 37 to 58 and gas rigs down 6 to 73.

2018, December, 21, 14:25:00 U.S. OIL PRODUCTION 11.6 MBD API - The U.S. produced a record 11.6 million barrels of oil per day (mb/d) and a record 4.8 mb/d of NGLs in November. Crude exports also hit a record high at 2.4 million barrels per day last month, and U.S. petroleum net imports fell at their lowest monthly level in more than 50 years at 2.2 million barrels per day.

2018, December, 21, 14:20:00 U.S. PRODUCTION: OIL + 134 TBD, GAS + 1,127 MCFD U.S. EIA - Crude oil production from the major US onshore regions is forecast to increase 134,000 b/d month-over-month in January from 8,032 to 8,166 thousand barrels/day , gas production to increase 1,127 million cubic feet/day from 75,789 to 76,916 million cubic feet/day .

2018, November, 30, 11:40:00 U.S. OIL GAS RESERVES 2017 U.S. EIA - Proved reserves of crude oil in the United States increased 19.5% (6.4 billion barrels) to 39.2 billion barrels at Year-End 2017, setting a new U.S. record for crude oil proved reserves. The previous record was 39.0 billion barrels set in 1970. Proved reserves of natural gas increased by 123.2 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) (36.1%) to 464.3 Tcf at year-end 2017—a new U.S. record for total natural gas proved reserves. The previous U.S. record was 388.8 Tcf, set in 2014.

2018, November, 16, 09:10:00 U.S. OIL INVENTORIES UP U.S. EIA - U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 10.3 million barrels from the previous week.

2018, November, 2, 12:05:00 U.S. OIL PRODUCTION 11.3 MBD U.S. EIA - U.S. crude oil production reached 11.3 million barrels per day (b/d) in August 2018,