Change in Stocks

It looks like a combination of shale crude oil production and inventory drawdowns have been backing out crude oil imports over the past two months.  Gulf Coast refineries are leading the way to crank up utilization, increase diesel exports and pull crude oil inventories down from the stratosphere.  A lot of this activity seems to be bypassing Cushing. Meanwhile the Gulf Coast is at the center of two big events this week – a tropical storm and a huge refinery fire.  Today we continue our analysis of crude inventories.