US Crude Inventories Edge Lower as Oil Tops $100

The US crude oil inventories saw a small decline of 300,000 barrels in the week ending September 4, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API). This follows a larger drawdown of 2.6 million barrels in the previous week.

Commercial crude oil inventories have lost around 48 million barrels over the last 21 weeks, but are still up by 2.8 million barrels for the year. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has continued to aid commercial inventories, with an additional 1.2 million barrels removed from the SPR this week.

The SPR now holds 285.4 million barrels, which is 446 million barrels shy of its maximum capacity. The operational minimum for oil in the SPR is generally considered to be between 250-300 million barrels, below which the reserve may face difficulties in pumping and processing oil efficiently.