The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 1.019 million barrels in the week ending September 25. Analysts had expected a 1.9 million barrel draw. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories grew by 1.786 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost 38 million barrels over the last 24 weeks, but US crude inventories are up nearly 13 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check in part thanks to draws from the SPR.
For the week ending September 25, another 800,000 barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the new total inventory held in the SPR to 283.8 million barrels—a level that is 430 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 18 fell to 13.939 million bpd, down from 13.944 in the week prior, and up 438,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 4:15 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading down on the day at $102.32 (-2.83%). While down on the day, Brent has risen nearly $5 since a week ago.
WTI was also trading down on the day, by $3.64 per barrel (-3.93%) at $88.96, which is down just $0.20 since this time last week.
Gasoline inventories rose 2.991 million barrels in the week ending September 25. In the week prior, gasoline inventories fell 2.16 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were 6% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories dropped 286,000 barrels, on top of the 2.164-million-barrel dip seen in the week prior. Distillate inventories were 12% below the five-year average heading into this reporting period, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventory figures—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—was not available at the time of writing.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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