Crude Inventories Fall Again as Fuel Stocks Build

Crude oil inventories in the United States fell sharply this week by 4.44 million barrels for the week ending July 12, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API).

For the week prior, the API reported a 1.9 million barrel draw in crude inventories.

This week marks the third week in a row of API-estimated inventory draws for crude oil, for a total loss of 15.5 million barrels.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 0.6 million barrels as of July 12. Inventories are now at 373.7 million barrels—the highest level since December 2022, but still well below the 656 million barrels in inventory in June 2020.

Oil prices were trading substantially down ahead of the API data release on Tuesday. At 04:11 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down $1.04 (-1.23%) on the day at $83.81—down about $1 per barrel from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading down on the day by $1.08 (-1.32%) at $80.83—down nearly $1 per barrel from this time last week.

Gasoline inventories rose this week by a small amount, +365,000 barrels, after last week’s 3-million-barrel decrease. As of last week, gasoline inventories are 1% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories rose this week by 4.92 million barrels, on top of last week’s 2.3-million-barrel increase. Distillates were about 8% below the five-year average for the week ending May July 5, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories fell this week by 746,000 barrels, according to API data, after falling by 1.2 million barrels in the previous week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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