The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 3.296 million barrels in the week ending July 24. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories grew by 2.603 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 54 million barrels over the last fifteen weeks, with US crude inventories down just 3 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR.
For the week ending July 24, another 3.7 million barrels left the SPR, bringing the new total to 307.7 million barrels—far lower than the 2023 low reached during the Biden Administration’s huge drawdown and the lowest level in over 43 years. SPR inventories are now 424 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.
It’s important to note that 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 July 17 fell to 13.798 million bpd, down slightly from 13.861 million bpd in the previous week prior, and up 525,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 3:24 pm ET on Tuesday, Brent crude was trading down on the day at $83.95 (-4.99%), a more than $7 per barrel drop week over week.
WTI was also trading down on the day, by $3.51 per barrel (-4.25%) at $79.10, down more than $5 per barrel from this time last week.
Gasoline inventories rose this week by 918,000 barrels in the week ending July 24. In the week prior, gasoline inventories decreased by 1.379 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were already 7% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories fell by 125,000 barrels, after rising 1.759 million barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories were already 10% below the five-year average as of the week ending July 17, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—fell by another 273,000 barrels over the reporting period after falling by 737,000 barrels in the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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