U.S. commercial crude oil stocks are expected to have risen 3.7 million barrels during the week ended February 20, a Platts analysis and survey of oil analysts showed.The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is scheduled to release its weekly data at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) Wednesday.

The EIA five-year (2010-14) average shows inventories increasing 1.8 million barrels for the reporting week.

The total U.S. crude oil inventory reached a record 425.6 million barrels the week ended February 13, according to EIA data that goes back to 1982. Strong domestic crude oil production, combined with an economic incentive to store crude oil, has propelled stocks higher.

New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) crude oil futures are more expensive for later-dated contracts than prompt delivery, making it potentially profitable for traders to buy and store crude oil.

Analysts expect the refinery utilization rate to drop 0.4 percentage point to 88.3% of operable capacity.

In refinery news, the United Steelworkers strike affecting 20% of U.S. refining capacity entered a fourth week Monday.

Of the 12 refineries and three chemical plants now encompassed by the labor action, only one facility -- Tesoro's 166,000 barrels per day (b/d) refinery in Martinez, California -- has been shut.

Delta Air Lines' Monroe Energy subsidiary shut down the 185,000 b/d refinery last Friday after frigid temperatures froze the Delaware River, which supplies cooling water to the plant.

The cold weather was also heard to have impacted Phillips 66's Bayway refinery in New Jersey, which shut its crude oil distillation unit.

DISTILLATE STOCKS EXPECTED TO FALL

U.S. distillate stocks are expected to have decreased 2.8 million barrels during the week ended February 20. EIA's five-year average shows U.S. distillate stocks falling 620,000 barrels in the comparable reporting week.

In refinery news, Motiva, a joint venture between Shell and Saudi Refining, experienced operational issues on one of the crude oil distillation units and a hydrocracker at its 600,000 b/d refinery in Port Arthur, Texas.

A hydrocracker unit converts heavy feedstock into refined products, including jet fuel and diesel.

U.S. gasoline stocks are expected to have decreased 1 million barrels the week ended February 20, according to the analysts surveyed. The EIA five-year average shows inventories falling about 2 million barrels in the comparable reporting week.

Citgo delayed the restart of the fluid catalytic cracker (FCC) at the 157,000 b/d South Texas refinery the week ended February 20, market sources said. The FCC's restart had been considered imminent by market sources.

The week ended February 20 also saw ExxonMobil shut an FCC at its 149,000 b/d Torrance, California, refinery, just one day prior to an explosion there involving an electrostatic precipitator on the gasoline-making FCC unit.

FCCs convert vacuum gasoil into gasoline and other high-end refined products. An FCC's closure could result in a gasoline stock drawdown, unless imports increase enough to offset production losses.
Source: http://www.platts.com/pressreleases/2015/022315/no