The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 1.786 million barrels in the week ending September 18. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories grew by a substantial 7.14 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost 39 million barrels over the last 23 weeks, but US crude inventories are up nearly 12 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR.
For the week ending September 18, another 400,000 barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the new total inventory held in the SPR to 284.6 million barrels—a level that is 429 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.
The generally accepted operational minimum for oil in the SPR is between 250-300 million barrels, below which the reserve may find it difficult to pump and process oil efficiently.
US production for the week ending Sept. 11 fell to 13.944 million bpd, down from 13.944 in the week prior, and up 462,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 3:55 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading down on the day at $97.85 (-2.48%), a more than $11 per barrel loss week over week.
WTI was also trading down on the day, by $3.23 per barrel (-3.50%) at $89.14, down roughly $18 per barrel from this time last week.
Gasoline inventories fell 2.16 million barrels in the week ending September 18. In the week prior, gasoline inventories rose by 1.46 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were 5% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories dropped as well, by 2.164 million barrels, on top of the 1.61-million-barrel gain in the week prior. Distillate inventories were 13% below the five-year average heading into this reporting period, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—rose by 2.082 million barrels over the reporting period after falling by 246,000 barrels in the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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