The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell 300,000 barrels in the week ending September 4. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 2.6 million barrels.
Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 48 million barrels over the last 21 weeks, with US crude inventories up 2.8 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR.
For the week ending September 4, another 1.2 million barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the new total inventory held in the SPR to 285.4 million barrels—a level that is 446 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 August 28 rose to 13.862 million bpd, up from 13.843 in the week prior, and up 423,000 bpd from a year earlier.
At 3:16 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading up on the day at $101.46 (+3.62%), a nearly $6 per barrel gain week over week.
WTI was also trading up on the day, by $3.41 per barrel (+3.67%) at $96.44, up nearly $6 per barrel from this time last week.
Gasoline inventories fell this week by 1.9 million barrels in the week ending September 4. In the week prior, gasoline inventories rose by 300,000 barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were already 6% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories gained 2 million barrels, compared to the 300,000-barrel loss 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—fell by 300,000 barrels over the reporting period after rising by 200,000 barrels in the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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