The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 765,000 barrels in the week ending June 19. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 8.33 million barrels.
Although commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have been falling rapidly for the last 2+ months, shedding 53 million barrels over the last ten weeks, US crude inventories are only down 2.1 million barrels so far this year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR.
Slowing the inventory bleeding has come at a cost. Commercial inventories have been supported by a steady transfer of barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve into the commercial system, leaving the SPR at its lowest level in more than four decades. For week ending June 19, another 9.1 million barrels left the SPR, bringing the new total to 331.2 million barrels—lower than the 2023 low reached during the Biden Administration’s huge drawdown and the lowest level in over four decades. SPR inventories are now 394 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.
US production rose to 13.806 million bpd for the week ending June 12, up from 13.799 million bpd in the week prior, according to the latest EIA data, and up 375,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 4:09 pm ET on Tuesday, before data release, Brent crude was trading sharply down on the day at $77.10 (-1.03%), as flows from the Strait of Hormuz began to resume.
WTI was also trading down on the day, by $0.52 per barrel (-0.70%) at $73.34, which is a roughly $3 per barrel dropoff from last Tuesday.
Gasoline inventories rose again this week, by 1.238 million barrels in the week ending June 19. In the week prior, gasoline inventories increased by 2.479 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were already 6% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories rose by 1.447 million barrels, after sinking by 461,000 barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories were already 13% below the five-year average as of the week ending June 12, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—fell by another 982,000 barrels over the reporting period after falling 1.523 million barrels in the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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