First Glimpse Of Harvey Impact Shows Biggest Crude Build In 5 Months, Smaller Gasoline Draw Than Expected

Amid all the chaos of Harvey's outages and Irma's expectations, tonight's API inventory seems relatively irrelevant but we are sure the machines will be all over it – no matter that it will be guesstimated more than normal. WTI was at one-month highs above $49 as API printed and kneejerked lower despite a smaller than expected crude build (still the biggest build since March) and a smaller than expected draw in gasoline.

 

API

  • Crude +2.79mm (+4mm exp) – biggest build in 5 months
  • Cushing +669k (+1mm exp)
  • Gasoline -2.544mm (-5.2mm exp) – biggest draw in 6 weeks
  • Distillates -610k

Last week's modest builds in products and big draw in crude occurred before Harvey hit. This week's data shows the initial effects with a major build in crude (though less than expected) and major draw in gasoline stocks (though also less than expected).

 

Heading into the print, WTI was around $49 and RBOB had been bouncing back after falling intraday… The initial reaction was a kneejerk lower in WTI and RBOB…

“The refineries are coming back online,” Craig Bethune, a senior portfolio manager who focuses on natural resources investments at Manulife Asset Management Ltd. in Toronto, says by telephone. But “the market still views pricing as range-bound.”

“If it goes through Florida, that’s definitely a headwind for demand” for gasoline and other fuels, Bethune says.

via http://ift.tt/2xP8kIV Tyler Durden

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