US Petroleum Inventories

We monitor US crude oil and gasoline inventories by comparing this year's weekly data to the same weeks during the past four years, i.e., 2007-2010. During the week of March 4, crude oil stocks were at 348.9 million barrels, about the same as two years ago. Amazingly, according to the latest CFTC's Commitments of Traders report, Large Speculators have acquired options to purchase 78% of this entire inventory during the week of March 1, when they held a record 271.9 million barrels in WTI crude oil futures contracts. The latest US petroleum inventories data pushed the price of WTI crude oil down $1.06 the past two sessions to $104.38 yesterday. However, Brent rose $2.31 to $115.46 yesterday.

During the week of March 4, gasoline stocks totaled 229.2 million barrels. That's about as much as a year ago.