US crude stocks plummet by 10.5 million barrels as imports dropNew York - December 21, 2011U.S. commercial crude oil stocks fell sharply during the week that ended December 16, dropping 10.570 million barrels to 323.581 million barrels, data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed Wednesday. Crude stocks declined as imports to the U.S. Gulf Coast (USGC) were hampered by fog delays in the Houston Ship Channel. The EIA’s reported crude stock draw was far beyond analysts’ expectations of a 2.25-million-barrel decline and more than double the 4.575 figure released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute. Despite the substantial draw, crude stocks are on par with the five-year-average level of 322.365 million barrels. James Beck, lead analyst on the weekly petroleum supply team at the EIA, said the delays in the Houston Ship Channel during part of last week exacerbated supply flows at a time of the year when stocks normally decline. The Houston Ship Channel serves a total of eight refineries, with a total capacity of 2.23 million b/d, according to Platts and EIA data. "It is not uncommon this time of the year, for tax reasons in Texas and Louisiana, that a lot of crude holders would not like to hold as much crude," Beck said, noting that during the same week in 2010, crude stocks dropped about nine million barrels. Crude inventories in the USGC declined seven million barrels, while imports into that region fell 664,000 barrels per day (b/d) to 3.730 million b/d. Overall imports at 7.581 million b/d were 741,000 b/d below the week prior and 1.160 million b/d below year-ago levels. On the West Coast, crude stocks fell 4.6 million barrels, while Alaska’s in-transit stocks halved, falling by 3.1 million barrels. Beck said the in-transit stocks can cause volatility to the total West Coast figures. "There was a good drop off in [in-transit] stocks last week after having gained for the prior two weeks," Beck said. "Importers report most moves but there could be a barge that was possibly missed." At Cushing, Oklahoma -- delivery point for the New York Mercantile Exchange’s crude oil futures contracts -- stocks fell nearly one million barrels to 30.198 million barrels, the lowest level for Cushing stocks since September 30. Crude inputs to refineries fell 53,000 b/d to 14.604 million b/d, while refinery utilization also dropped, falling 0.2 percentage points to 84.9% of capacity. In distillates, U.S. stocks fell 2.353 million barrels to 139.149 million barrels last week as a rebound in demand trumped near-record-high production, the EIA data showed. U.S. demand for distillates jumped 447,000 b/d to 3.953 million b/d -- a year-to-date high and 168,800 b/d greater than the five-year average. U.S. distillate production edged up 32,000 b/d to 5.008 million b/d, near the all-time high of 5.032 million b/d reported for the week ending December 2. Combined low and ultra low sulfur diesel production slipped 46,000 b/d to 4.357 million b/d, while heating oil output rose 78,000 b/d to 651,000 b/d. Refiners have been ramping up heating oil production over the past three weeks in preparation for winter heating season. The bulk of the increase has been seen on the USGC, were output at 408,000 b/d the week ending December 16 was up from 138,000 b/d on November 25. USGC heating oil is shipped to the key consuming U.S. Atlantic Coast (USAC) region and also exported abroad. USAC heating oil stocks were up 401,000 barrels last week at 30.78 million barrels, narrowing the deficit to the five-year average to 15.33% from 19% the prior reporting week. In gasoline, stocks declined a marginal 412,000 barrels to 218.406 million barrels, while demand edged higher by 213,000 b/d to 8.879 million b/d. Gasoline stocks declined across most of the U.S., with the exception of the USGC, where inventories rose 1.4 million barrels. On the USAC, gasoline stocks fell 1.3 million barrels. Total gasoline imports also declined, shedding 175,000 b/d to 601,000 b/d. *Platts calculates China's apparent or implied oil demand on the basis of crude throughput volumes at the domestic refineries and net oil product imports, as reported by the National Bureau of Statistics and Chinese customs. The government releases data on imports, exports, domestic crude production and refinery throughput data, but does not give official data on the country's actual oil consumption figure and oil stockpiles. Official statistics on oil storage are released intermittently. Platts releases its monthly calculation of China's apparent demand between the 18th and 26th of every month via press release and via its website. 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