Stocks mount

摘要

Reported stocks of crude and products continued to build in July and are now 130mn bl up on a year ago.Onshore crude stocks fell for a third successive month following a seasonal increase in refinery throughputs. But product inventories are close to record highs for this time of year after last month's 20mn bl build. Low refinery runs have limited the product stockbuild since the end of the first quarter to just under 50mn bl - well below the average for this period in the previous five years. But inventories are at historically high levels because a collapse in demand during the fourth and first quarters turned the usual winter stock-draw into a counter-seasonal build which left stocks at the end of March 100mn bl up on a year earlier.