The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 2.09 million barrels in the week ending Oct 2. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories grew by 1.019 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost more than 38 million barrels over the last 25 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 October 2, another 800,000 barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the new total inventory held in the SPR to 283 million barrels—a level that is 431 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 25 rose to 13.955 million bpd, up from 13.939 in the week prior, and up 450,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 3:46 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up on the day at $100.90 (+0.62%). While up on the day, Brent has slipped roughly $1.40 since a week ago.
WTI was also trading up on the day, by $0.28 per barrel (+0.31%) at $89.71, which is up nearly $1 per barrel since this time last week.
Gasoline inventories fell 1.37 million barrels in the week ending October 2. In the week prior, gasoline inventories rose 2.991 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were 7% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories rose 461,000 barrels, after falling 286,000 barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories were 14% 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—gained 866,000 barrels.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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