U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories continued to decline, while commercial crude stockpiles posted a modest weekly increase, according to estimates from The American Petroleum Institute (API) for the week ending September 18.
API said U.S. crude inventories rose by 1.786 million barrels. In the previous week, crude stocks had increased by a much larger 7.14 million barrels. At the same time, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) continued to shrink: another 400,000 barrels were withdrawn during the reporting period, bringing total SPR holdings to 284.6 million barrels.
The source noted that the current SPR level is 429 million barrels below maximum capacity. The generally accepted operational minimum is estimated at 250-300 million barrels, below which the reserve could face difficulty pumping and processing oil efficiently.
According to API calculations, commercial crude inventories excluding the SPR have fallen by 39 million barrels over the last 23 weeks. Even so, U.S. crude stocks remain up by nearly 12 million barrels for the year, partly supported by releases from the SPR.
Fuel inventories moved in the opposite direction. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.16 million barrels after rising by 1.46 million barrels a week earlier. The latest EIA data showed that before this reporting period, gasoline inventories were 5% below the five-year average for this time of year.
Distillate inventories also declined, dropping by 2.164 million barrels. That followed a 1.61-million-barrel increase in the prior week. Latest EIA data showed distillate inventories were 13% below the five-year average heading into the reporting period.
Inventories at Cushing, the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract, increased by 2.082 million barrels after a 246,000-barrel decline in the previous week.
On production, U.S. output for the week ending Sept. 11 stood at 13.944 million bpd. That was unchanged from the previous week and 462,000 bpd higher than a year earlier.
Oil prices were lower on the day. At 3:55 pm ET on Wednesday, Brent crude was trading at $97.85, down 2.48% on the session and more than $11 per barrel below the level seen at the same time a week earlier. WTI was down by $3.23, or 3.50%, at $89.14, roughly $18 per barrel lower week over week.
