Ahead of the Bell - Oil Inventory

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If recent petroleum market trends continue, government data due out Wednesday will show that the nation s gasoline supply has declined four weeks in a row.

The Energy Department s forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, is due to release its weekly report on petroleum supplies for the week ended Aug. 24 at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

U.S. gasoline inventories have fallen three straight weeks through Aug. 17, amid declining imports and strong demand. Domestic refiners production levels also dipped slightly for the week ended Aug. 17 after posting a slight gain in the previous period.

Stockpiles of the motor fuel fell 5.7 million barrels to 201.9 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 17, leaving inventories 6.5 percent below year-ago levels.
Still, prices at the pump continue to fall. The national average price of regular unleaded gasoline was $2.75 a gallon Tuesday, according to AAA and the Oil
Price Information Service, down from a record $3.23 a gallon in late May.

Gas prices have fallen as refineries increased production, boosting gasoline inventories, which stood at 196.7 million barrels in mid-May.

For the week ended Aug. 17, imports of gasoline averaged 927,000 barrels per day, down 286,000 barrels per day from a week earlier. U.S. refineries ran at 91.6 percent of production capacity on average, down 0.2 percentage points from the previous week. Crude oil inventories rose 1.9 million barrels to 337.1 million barrels.

Light, sweet crude oil for October delivery lost 24 cents Tuesday to settle at $71.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

JKL

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