The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 2.980 million barrels in the week ending October 17, when analysts had expected a sizable build. This more than offsets last week’s 2.780 million barrel build.
Crude oil inventories in the United States are so far still showing a net loss for the year, losing 2.423 million barrels according to Oilprice calculations of API data.
Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have risen by 9000,00 barrels to 408.6 million barrels in the week ending October 17 as the government attempts to replenish stockpiles that were eaten into by the previous administration.
US production has reached an all-time high for the week of October 10, of 13.636 million bpd, according to the EIA.
At 4:40 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up, by $0.62 (+1.02%) on the day, reaching $61.63. Brent prices are now down another $0.40 per barrel from this time last week. WTI was also trading up on the day, by $0.34 (+0.59%) at $7.86.
Gasoline inventories also saw a decrease of 236,000 barrels in the week ending October 17, after rising by 2.99 million barrels in the week prior. As of last week, gasoline inventories were slightly below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories rounded out the losses in the reporting period, losing 974,000 barrels, on top of the week prior’s 4.79-million-barrel drawdown. Distillate inventories were already 7% below the five-year average as of the week ending October 10, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—was not available at the time of writing.
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