US Crude Oil Inventories Fall as SPR Releases More Barrels

The American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that US crude oil inventories fell by 328,000 barrels in the week ending August 14. This is a reversal from the previous week's increase of 9.072 million barrels due to higher imports, lower exports, and an injection from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). The SPR has been providing support to commercial inventories, which have lost around 49 million barrels over the last 18 weeks.

According to API data, US crude oil production rose to 13.805 million bpd in the week ending August 7, up from 13.804 million bpd in the previous week and 521,000 bpd higher than a year ago. The SPR has been releasing 5.3 million barrels per week to aid commercial inventories, bringing the total inventory held in the SPR to 293.4 million barrels.

The API also reported that gasoline inventories rose by 1.076 million barrels in the week ending August 14, while distillate inventories fell by 2.797 million barrels, following a 596,000-barrel loss in the previous week. Cushing inventory, which is kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract, fell by 1.439 million barrels over the reporting period.