US Crude Inventories See Surprise Build Amid Higher Imports

The US crude oil inventories saw an unexpected build of 9.072 million barrels in the week ending August 7, according to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API). This was a larger-than-expected increase, as analysts had predicted a 500,000-barrel draw. The API also reported that commercial crude oil inventories excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) have lost just over 49 million barrels over the last seventeen weeks.

US production for the week ending July 31 rose to 13.804 million bpd, up from 13.796 in the previous week and 600,000 bpd higher than a year ago. The increase in crude imports relative to exports during the week contributed to the larger-than-expected build in inventories.

The SPR continues to release oil, with another 6.1 million barrels leaving the reserve in the week ending August 7. This brings the total in the SPR to 298.7 million barrels, which is still below its operational minimum of between 250 and 300 million barrels.