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Crude oil

Strong oil demand from China’s teapot refiners drives tanker jam

China's independent refiners, freed of government constraints after securing permission to import just last year, have gorged on plentiful low-cost crude in 2016. This has created delays for tankers that have quadrupled to between 20 to 30 days at Qingdao port in Shandong province.

Oil prices extend losses as gasoline glut looms

The decline on Tuesday follows data showing US gasoline demand during January fell for the first time in 14 months, while overall US oil demand fell 1% that month from a year ago.

Industry Metrics

Hydrocarbon Processing Staff: Rhodes, Mike

US product markets weakened despite strong domestic gasoline demand.

US, Indian gasoline demand boosts outlook for oil

Hedge funds have turned very bullish about the outlook for oil prices based on indicators showing strong gasoline demand in the US and India.

Iran’s lack of storage access limits oil exports to European refiners

Some 45-50 million barrels of Iran's oil are estimated to be held in tankers at sea, barely changed from the amounts thought to be in floating storage before sanctions were lifted at the start of the year.

Oil price war scares sense of US energy security

Imports will almost certainly increase further over the remainder of the year as refineries ramp up production to meet record gasoline consumption and US crude output continues to decline.

US energy workers hit hard by investment in company stock plans

In Oklahoma and Texas, workers are delaying retirement plans, surrendering trucks, cars and land in personal bankruptcy cases, or just praying oil prices will recover.

Russia exports more oil as refineries go offline

Russian refineries traditionally have the largest offline capacity in April, as companies scramble to finish maintenance before consumption of oil products peaks in summer.

US expands imports of Nigerian oil as refiners turn to West African crudes

Nigeria was the fourth-largest supplier of foreign crude to the US last week, displacing Mexico and also competing with Iraq and Colombia, according to preliminary figures from the EIA.

US gasoline inventories fall as refiners cut rates

Refinery crude runs fell by 176,000 bpd, while utilization rates dropped by 0.6 percentage points. Gasoline stocks fell by 4.6 million bbl, well above expectations for a 1.5-million bbl drop.