With the Keystone pipeline back to normal operations last week Canadian crude oil flowing into both Cushing and Patoka increased, according to the Genscape Daily Mid-Continent Pipeline Report. Oil shipments from Canada to Cushing increased by an average of 62,172 bpd for the week ending April 26th or a week over week increase of 25 percent. The flow of Canadian crude oil into Cushing increased about half as much as what was lost from the previous week.
Although the net flow of Canadian crude oil increased noticeably into Cushing last week the net outflow of oil from Cushing increased even more strongly. The largest change for the week on the outflow side was from a 56,104 bpd average increase on the Seaway pipeline for the week ending April 26th. In fact the total average flow out of Cushing on Seaway is at the highest level in over a month which is resulting in Cushing stocks starting to resume their destocking pattern even though some oil is being diverted from Patoka to Cushing. This is resulting in the second week in a row that Genscape is reporting a decline in total inventories out of Cushing after several week of a building pattern.
Each week, Genscape produces two inventory reports on Cushing and publishes them on Monday and Thursday. Unlike EIA data derived from voluntary reporting or accounting flows, our storage estimates are based on actual tank volumes, and include granularity down to the individual tank level. Click here to learn more or request a free trial here.