Continuing our weekly series, Open Insights, we'll take a look at the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report ("WPSR") for the week of March 1, 2019.
The EIA reported a crude build of 7.1M barrels for the week. Imports increased by 1.1M barrels per day (bpd) from last week and hovered around 7.0M bpd, largely led by imports from the north (Canada) and south (Mexico). Exports also continued to stay elevated at 2.8M bpd. Given where WTI/Brent spreads are (near $10/barrel), we anticipate exports to remain healthy.
Refinery utilization increased slightly to 87.5% as turnaround season