U.S. Crude Oil, Gasoline Inventories See Sizable Gains

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose this week by 2.48 million barrels for the week ending May 10, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API).

For the week prior, the API reported a 3.104 million barrel dip in crude inventories.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 1 million barrels as of May 17. Inventories are now at 368.8 million barrels—the highest point since last April, but well below the 656 million barrels in inventory in June 2020.

Oil prices were trading down ahead of the API data release on Tuesday, with analysts suspecting that most of the geopolitical premium that existed in the market has now evaporated.           

At 3:46 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down $0.74 on the day at $82.89—up roughly  $.40 per barrel from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading down on the day at 0.93% to $79.06—up roughly $1 per barrel from this time last week.   

Gasoline inventories rose this week as well, by 2.088 million barrels, more than countering last week’s 1.269 million barrel dropoff. As of last week, gasoline inventories were about 1% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories fell this week by 320,000 barrels, offsetting last week’s 349,000-barrel build. Distillates were 7% below the five-year average for the week ending May 10, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories saw a build this week, according to API data, adding 1.77 million barrels after decreasing by 601,000 barrels in the previous week.

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