US Petroleum Inventories Fall As Cold Snap Hits

Editors note: The API data in this article does not fully reflect Winter Storm Fern’s impact on oil markets.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 247,000 barrels in the week ending January 23. Crude oil inventories increased by 3.04 million barrels in the week prior.

Inventories in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) keep climbing week after week. The Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the SPR rose by 500,000 barrels to 415 million barrels in the week ending January 23. This is 310.5 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.

US production fell during the week of January 16 to 13.732 million bpd, down from 13.753 million bpd in the week prior, according to the latest EIA data. This is 255,000 bpd more than this same time last year.

At 3:53 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up on the day at $67.33 (+2.65%). Brent is now roughly $2 per barrel up from this time last week on US supply concerns due to the severe weather that took some crude production offline. WTI was also trading up on the day, by $1.63 (+2.69%) at $62.26.

Gasoline inventories also fell this week, losing 415,000 barrels in the week ending January 23. In the week prior, gasoline inventories grew by 6.2 million barrels. As of last week, gasoline inventories were 5% above the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories grew in the reporting period by 2 million barrels, after falling by 33,000 barrels in the week prior. Distillate inventories were still 1% below the five-year average as of the week ending January 16, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—fell by 92,000 barrels, after increasing by 1.2 million barrels in the prior week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com