Welcome to NexusFi: the best trading community on the planet, with over 150,000 members Sign Up Now for Free
Genuine reviews from real traders, not fake reviews from stealth vendors
Quality education from leading professional traders
We are a friendly, helpful, and positive community
We do not tolerate rude behavior, trolling, or vendors advertising in posts
We are here to help, just let us know what you need
You'll need to register in order to view the content of the threads and start contributing to our community. It's free for basic access, or support us by becoming an Elite Member -- see if you qualify for a discount below.
-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
(If you already have an account, login at the top of the page)
Trading: Primarily Energy but also a little Equities, Fixed Income, Metals and Crypto.
Frequency: Many times daily
Duration: Never
Posts: 5,049 since Dec 2013
Thanks Given: 4,388
Thanks Received: 10,207
API is the American Petroleum Institute which is a US Trade Association. Their members voluntarily report stock levels to them which they publish after market close on Tuesday.
EIA is the Energy Information Association which is a US Government entity. Reporting to EIA is compulsory. They release their statistics on Wednesday mornings at 1030 Eastern.
API data is subscription only, while EIA data is free which combined with the voluntary vs compulsory reporting requirement means that people care a lot more about EIA than they do API, but the API data is released 18 hours earlier!
There are often major discrepancies between the two. One thing to note about oil stocks. Crude tankers are very large with VLCCs transporting 2.2 million barrels at a time. A ship is deemed to have discharged when it finishes discharging. So if a ship starts discharging on Wednesday and finishes 1 min past midnight on Friday/Saturday, then officially the ship discharged 2.2 million barrels on Saturday. In reality most of that oil is in the system Thursday/Friday which makes reporting complicated and subject to large(ish) swings. (Oil report is based upon stocks on Friday night)
Something else important about the oil stock releases is the PADD data.
PADD 1 is the East Coast. The NYMEX Heating Oil and Gasoline contracts are for delivery into New York Harbor. (NYH).
PADD 2 is the Midwest ~ includes Cushing OK which is the delivery basis of the NYMEX Crude contract.
PADD 3 is the Gulf Coast. This area and its storage capacity is massive in comparison to the other PADDs
PADD 4 is the Rockies. This areas storage capacity is tiny and is extremely constrained.
PADD 5 is the West Coast. Because of the Rockies, the West Coast and PADD 5 are effectively a separate market to the rest of the US.
So people really care about PADD 1, 2 & 3 although 1 is more important for Products.
To follow up your informative reply, what is the generally accepted way if interpreting draw/build figures?
Using this article as a guide https://oilprice.com:443/Energy/Crude-Oil/Oil-Falls-Despite-Massive-Crude-Inventory-Draw.html
If there is a larger than expected draw (depleting of reserves) then it 'should' signal oil price strength due to larger than expected demand? Which means more oil needs to be brought in order to 'build' reserves back again?
As always any help is gratefully received!
