US refinery runs reach record high levels

U.S. refinery runs, the gross inputs to petroleum refineries, averaged 17.6 million barrels per day (b/d) for the week ending June 9, according to data for the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), continuing a trend of unusually high runs.

Weekly U.S. refinery runs have surpassed 17 million b/d just 24 times since EIA began publishing the data series in 1990. All of those instances have occurred since July 2015 with record-breaking levels occurring
in mid-July through mid-August 2015.

Product supplied to the U.S. market, inventories and exports are also at relatively high levels. U.S. refinery capacity, the amount of input that a crude oil distillation unit can process in a 24-hour period under usual operating conditions averaged over the entire year, increased by 659,000 barrels per calendar day (b/cd) since mid-August 2015.

Petroleum product inventories, product supplied to end-users, and exports have all recently surpassed previous five-year averages. Total product inventories for the first week of June 2017 exceeded the five-year average by nearly 83 million barrels, although this number was approximately 3 million barrels lower than at the same time last year.

Product supplied was higher than the five-year average by approximately 600,000 b/d during the first week of June 2017 but 400,000 b/d lower than at the same time last year. Petroleum product exports for the first week of June 2017 were 831,000 b/d higher than the June 2016 average.

The EIA releases its Weekly Petroleum Status Report at 10:30 a.m. each Wednesday.