MOSCOW (MRC) -- US crude oil inventory builds likely extended in the week ended March 12 as the Gulf Coast refinery complex continued to operate at reduced capacity in the wake of the February deep freeze, an S&P Global Platts analysis showed March 15.
Total commercial crude stocks likely climbed 400,000 barrels to around 498.8 million barrels last week, analysts surveyed by Platts said. The counter-seasonal build would leave stocks 6.5% above the five-year average of US Energy Information Administration data, opening the widest surplus since early January.
The expected increase comes as nationwide refinery runs continue to hold well below normal following the mid-February deep freeze that took as much as 4.4 million b/d of refinery capacity fully offline Feb. 18.
Nationwide refinery utilization is expected to average around 74% of total capacity, analysts said. While this is a 5 percentage point uptick from the week prior, it would leave utilization around 9 percentage points below pre-freeze levels and still more than 14% behind the five-year average.
While the bulk of the impacted refineries have seen at least partial restarts, at least eight facilities were still operating at less than full capacity last week, and at least two facilities comprising a combined 700,000 b/d of capacity had no estimated full restart date.
US crude production, which saw a sharp decline in February in the weeks following the winter weather, had recovered to pre-storm levels of around 10.9 million b/d in the week ended March 5, EIA data shows.
In total, the storm is likely to cost roughly 70 million barrels in lost refinery runs, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, considerably overshadowing aggregate crude production losses of 20 million-25 million barrels.
US crude exports averaged 2.68 million b/d in the week ended March 12, according to data from cFlow, Platts trade-flow software, roughly flat from an EIA-reported 2.63 million b/d the week prior.
Refined products stock draws likely extended amid still-weak refinery runs, though strong margins likely incentivized production from operational facilities.
Total US gasoline inventories likely declined 1.4 million barrels to around 230.2 million barrels, analysts said, while distillate stocks were expected 900,000 barrels lower at around 136.6 million barrels. The draw would leave inventories respectively 5.7% and 3.4% behind their five-year averages.
US Gulf Coast cracking margins for WTI MEH averaged USD13.54/b in the five-days ended March 12, S&P Global Platts Analytics data showed, up from a February average of USD9.98/b. The strong margins come on the back of a steep rise in gasoline cracks.
The USGC unleaded 87 crack versus WTI MEH averaged USD19.26/b last week, up 65% from a February average of USD11.65/b. On the US Atlantic Coast, New York Harbor RBOB cracks versus Brent climbed above USD20/b and were the strongest since August 2018.
Gasoline cracks were further supported by upward trending demand. Apple Mobility data showed US driving activity in the week ended March 12 was up around 3% from the week prior and nearly 8% above year-ago levels.
As MRC informed before, the largest US refinery, Motiva Enterprises’ 607,000 barrel-per-day Port Arthur, Texas, plant, returned to normal operations. The refinery was shut on Feb. 15 when freezing temperatures, rarely seen on the US Gulf Coast, knocked out steam supply. Motiva began restarting the refinery on Feb. 24.
Motiva Chemicals has also resumed operations at its mixed-feed cracker in Port Arthur, USA. The process of restart of this cracker with the capacity of 635,000 mt/year of ethylene and 340,000 mt/year of propylene began on 27 February, 2021, and finished late last week. The cracker wa shut along with the refinery at the same site on 14 February, 2021, because of the deep freeze.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 241,030 tonnes in January 2021 versus 217,890 tonnes a year earlier. Only shipments of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market reached 141,870 tonnes in January 2021 versus 123,520 tonnes a year earlier. Supply of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased.
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