US Crude Inventories Drop 2.09 Million Barrels in Latest Week

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that US crude oil inventories dropped by 2.09 million barrels in the week ending October 2. This follows a prior week where inventories increased by 1.019 million barrels. Over the last 25 weeks, commercial crude oil inventories have decreased by more than 38 million barrels, although they are still up nearly 13 million barrels for the year, partly due to draws from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

For the week ending October 2, an additional 800,000 barrels were withdrawn from the SPR, bringing the total inventory to 283 million barrels. This level is 431 million barrels below the SPR's maximum capacity and approaches the operational minimum of 250-300 million barrels, below which efficient pumping and processing could become difficult.

US crude oil production rose to 13.955 million barrels per day (bpd) for the week ending September 25, up from 13.939 million bpd the previous week and 450,000 bpd higher than a year earlier. Brent crude was trading at $100.90 per barrel, up 0.62% on the day but down roughly $1.40 from a week ago. WTI crude was trading at $89.71 per barrel, up 0.31% on the day and nearly $1 higher than the previous week.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.37 million barrels in the week ending October 2, after a prior increase of 2.991 million barrels. Gasoline inventories were 7% below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate inventories rose by 461,000 barrels, following a previous decline of 286,000 barrels, and were 14% below the five-year average. Cushing inventory, the delivery hub for WTI Crude futures, gained 866,000 barrels.