The Platts pre-report survey estimates suggests 1.5 million barrel build in U.S. oil stocks
  by: OilOnline
  Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Analysts expect US commercial crude oil inventories to show a 1.5 million barrel build when the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and American Petroleum Institute (API) release weekly data on Wednesday, a Platts survey of analysts indicated Tuesday. The EIA/API data is scheduled to be reported Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET/15:30 GMT.

 "If crude imports, which are typically a wild card, stay steady at last week's 10.215 million barrels per day, but refinery utilization increases, then the stock build should be modest," says Linda Rafield, Platts senior oil analyst and editor of Platts Futures & Derivatives Review. Refinery utilization is expected to edge up 0.5 percentage points to 85.9%, based on last week's EIA data.

Analysts project a draw in gasoline stocks of 500,000 barrels. Gasoline stocks have fallen a cumulative 24.878 million barrels over the past seven weeks, but still remain 6.87 million barrels above the five-year average and 17.99 million barrels above year-ago levels. Declining gasoline stocks at this time of year is seasonal as summer grade moves out of primary storage through the distribution system.

Distillate inventories are expected to show a build of 1.3 million barrels as demand for winter fuels declines and demand for low sulfur diesel wanes with the passing of planting season.

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