Afternoon Market Overview

The EIA has released the March Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) Report. OPEC will release its report Thursday with the IEA report due out on Friday morning.

The EIA report was mixed on the production side as they indicated that US crude oil production growth would be about 100,000 bpd lower than what they forecast in the March report for 2018 but 180,000 bpd above the 2019 forecast from last month. Following are the main oil highlights from the report: EIA estimates that U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.4 million barrels per day (b/d) in March, up 260,000 b/d from the February level.

Total U.S. crude oil production averaged 9.3 million b/d in 2017. EIA projects that U.S. crude oil production will average 10.7 million b/d in 2018, which would mark the highest annual average U.S. crude oil production level, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 million b/d set in 1970. EIA forecasts that 2019 crude oil production will again increase, averaging 11.4 million b/d. EIA estimates that U.S. crude oil production averaged 10.4 million barrels per day (b/d) in March, up 260,000 b/d from the February level.

Total U.S. crude oil production averaged 9.3 million b/d in 2017. EIA projects that U.S. crude oil production will average 10.7 million b/d in 2018, which would mark the highest annual average U.S. crude oil production level, surpassing the previous record of 9.6 million b/d set in 1970. EIA forecasts that 2019 crude oil production will again increase, averaging 11.4 million b/d. EIA estimates that U.S. gasoline consumption (measured as product supplied) was just under 9 million b/d for the first quarter of 2018, which would be the third highest on record for this time of year.

Additionally, EIA estimates gasoline consumption plus gasoline exports for the four weeks ending March 30 averaged 10.2 million b/d, which would be an all-time high for the month if confirmed in monthly data.