Storage at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub increased by more than 1 million barrels from 10-14 April, according to Genscape, pushing capacity utilisation to 78 percent.
This is the highest capacity utilisation level Genscape has measured at Cushing since 2011. Since that time, 27.5 million barrels of storage capacity, 1.5 million barrels of take-away pipeline capacity, and 1.9 million barrels of incoming pipeline capacity have been added.
With 12-month WTI spreads exceeding US$7/bbl for the first three months of this year, incentives to store in Cushing have been strong.
Cushing provides refinery feed for approximately 1.6 million barrels of mid-continent refining capacity, and flows to support those operations continue. Storage increases were caused by additional Canadian and Bakken inflows, despite a slight decrease in Permian inflows, combined with consistent outflows. Analysing the 2015 transport movements connected to Cushing through 10 April some 194 million barrels were moved into the hub, while only 166 million barrels moved out. This explains the nearly 28 million barrel storage build over the same period.
