US Crude Inventories Drop 2.09 Million Barrels in Latest Week
US crude oil inventories saw a significant decline of 2.09 million barrels in the week ending October 2, reversing the previous week's increase of 1.019 million barrels. This drop marks a continuing trend, as commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), have fallen by over 38 million barrels in the past 25 weeks. Despite this downward trend, total US crude inventories have risen nearly 13 million barrels year to date.
Additionally, the SPR released another 800,000 barrels, reducing its holdings to 283 million barrels. This level remains within the generally accepted operational minimum range of 250 million to 300 million barrels.
Cushing inventories, a key storage hub, rose by 866,000 barrels. Meanwhile, gasoline inventories decreased by 1.37 million barrels after a substantial increase of 2.991 million barrels the prior week. Distillate inventories, however, saw a modest increase of 461,000 barrels following a decline of 286,000 barrels the previous week.
US oil production showed a slight uptick, reaching 13.955 million barrels per day (bpd) in the week ending September 25, up from 13.939 million bpd the week before.