The Week In Numbers for the Week Ending 8-26-2016

 Each week, we strive to provide you a bare bones summary of what happened to the price of WTI, Natural Gas, and Brent Crude. In addition, we summarize the major reports from Genspace, API, and EIA on Inventory Data. And we also throw in the rig count for good measure.

On August 22, 2016, Genscape released Cushing Inventory data for the prior week. Cushing is the largest oil storage tank in the world, and is the settlement point for crude oil futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. According to Genscape, inventory decreased 187,000 barrels at the Cushing settlement point for the prior week.

On August 23, 2016, API reported its weekly inventory data for the prior week. According to API, U.S. Crude inventories increased a whopping 4.464 million barrels. According to a survey from Reuters, analysts had expected a half-million barrel draw. Gasoline inventories decreased by 2.2 million barrels. This is the fourth weekly draw. Distillates also decreased by 834,000 barrels.

On August 24, 2016, the Energy Information Administration released weekly data for the prior week.   The EIA weekly report, included the following important notes:

- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day during the week ending August 19, 2016, about 186,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average. Refineries are operating at 92.5% capacity.

- U.S. Crude imports averaged about 8.6 million barrels per day last week, up by 449,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

- U.S. commercial crude inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels (compared to a decrease of 2.5 million barrels the week before) . At 523.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories remain at historically high levels fro this time of year. Total motor gasoline inventories remain unchanged last week, and are well above the upper limit of the average range.

On August 25, 2016, the Energy Information Administration released weekly data for the prior week for natural gas storage. Working gas in storage was 3,350 Bcf as of Friday August 1, 2016. This represents a net increase of 11 Bcf from the previous week. This is well below the typical build for this time of the year, indicating that natural gas markets may be moving into balance.

On Friday, August 26, 2016 Baker Hughes released the weekly rig count data. The U.S. oil rig count was unchanged at 406. The gas rig count fell by 2 to 81, and miscellaneous rigs remained at two, taking the total up to 489. This marks the end of eight straight weeks of an increasing rig count.

Ty Chapman

Five Star Metals, Inc.

Raising the Bar for Customer Service and Quality

Twitter: @FSM_TY

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