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Annual Report
4. World Oil Inventories
The year 2012 witnessed a significant increase in total world oil
stocks (commercial and strategic) as they went up at the end of the
fourth quarter of 2012 by about 98 million barrels, or 1.4% compared
with the similar quarter of previous year to 7092 million barrels.
Crude oil stocks at sea, and independent stocks near consumption
centres such as the Caribbean, Rotterdam and Singapore at the end
of 2012, totalled 937 million barrels, or 27 million barrels lower than
previous year.
4-1 OECD Commercial Stocks
After reaching 2605 million barrels in the first quarter, total stocks
increased by 34 million barrel in the second quarter of the year to
average 2639 million barrel. During the third quarter stocks went up by
12 million barrels, while, there was a significant decrease of 14 million
barrels in the last quarter of 2012 compared with the previous quarter,
bringing total world stocks to 2637 million barrels at year end.
It is worth noting that days of forward consumption of all
commercial stocks in the OECD countries went down to reach a level
of 57 days, which is lower than previous year level but still higher
than usual average.
4-2 US Strategic Petroleum Reserve
The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) passed the 700 million
barrels level for the first time in 2008. It started to decline below
that level since the third quarter 2011 to settle at 696 million barrels
since then and up to the fourth quarter of 2012. The decline in the
U.S. strategic reserve was due to the decision taken by International
Energy Agency in June 2011 to allow its members to withdraw 60
million barrels from their strategic stocks.
