US Oil Inventories Plummet Amid Four Seas Crisis

US oil inventories took an unexpected hit last week, plunging by 2.479 million barrels to 406.987 million barrels, according to the EIA's latest weekly data release.

The Cushing storage site, a key benchmark for US crude oil prices, saw its inventories rise by 2.356 million barrels to 20.955 million barrels.

Notably, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) decreased by 2.841 million barrels per day to 304.809 million barrels, marking a significant drop in reserve levels.

Oil demand growth was estimated at 0.216 million barrels per day last week, reaching 20.970 million barrels per day, while refinery utilization declined from 97.21% to 96.5%, with gross crude inputs into refineries decreasing from 17.518 million barrels per day to 17.381 million barrels per day.