The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 9.0 million barrels in the week ending November 6. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 5.267 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost more than 54 million barrels over the last 30 weeks, and 3 million over this year, according to API data, which has been kept in check in part thanks to draws from the SPR.
For the week ending November 6, 2.7 million barrels of crude oil left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the total inventory held in the SPR down to 279.5 million barrels—a level that is 434 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 Oct 30 reached a new record, rising to 14.003 million bpd in the period, up from 13.992 million bpd in the week prior, and up 352,000 bpd from a year ago.
At 4:24 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading down on the day at $91.96 (-0.66%). Brent is trading down more than $12 per barrel from this time last week.
WTI was also trading down on the day, by $0.48 per barrel (-0.55%) at $86.37, which is down roughly $11 per barrel since this time last week.
Gasoline inventories rose by just 4 thousands barrels during the week ending November 6 (editor corrected). In the week prior, gasoline inventories rose by 1.427 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were 2% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories also saw a build of 1.5 million barrels, compared to the 270,000 barrels lost 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—gained 182,000 barrels after gaining 511,000 barrels in the previous week.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
- China Is Buying Oil Again After Months of Living Off Its Stockpiles
- U.S. Traders Weigh the Cost of Taking Trump’s Russian Diesel
- Iran War Set to Drive A Drop in Global Fossil Fuel Emissions in 2026
