USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop Almost 2MM Barrels WoW
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), dropped by 1.7 million barrels from the week ending July 3 to the week ending July 10.
That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on July 15 and included data for the week ending July 10.
The EIA report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 409.7 million barrels on July 10, 411.4 million barrels on July 3, and 422.2 million barrels on July 11, 2025. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 316.5 million barrels on July 10, 319.5 million barrels on July 3, and 402.7 million barrels on July 11, 2025, the report outlined.
Total petroleum stocks - including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils - stood at 1.527 billion barrels on July 10, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 10.3 million barrels week on week and down 131.2 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.
“At 409.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six percent below the five-year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.
“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels from last week and are eight percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending component inventories decreased last week,” it added.
“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 4.6 million barrels last week and are about 11 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 3.0 million barrels from last week and are 28 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.
U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.1 million barrels per day during the week ending July 10, according to the EIA report, which outlined that this was 99,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.
“Refineries operated at 96.2 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in its report.
“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 5.3 million barrels per day,” it added.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million barrels per day last week, the report noted. This was an increase of 60,000 barrels per day from the previous week, the report revealed.
“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.5 million barrels per day, 12.2 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in the report.
“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 354,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 93,000 barrels per day,” it added.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, up by 0.3 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in the report.
“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels per day, down by 1.1 percent from the same period last year,” it added.
“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, down by 2.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 2.3 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.
Analyst Take
In a statement posted on his X page on Wednesday, which analyzed the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, highlighted that U.S. crude inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels and pointed out that a further three million barrels were released from the SPR, “taking the cumulative post-war drawdown to almost 100 million barrels”.
“Gasoline stocks declined by 1.5 million barrels, with Gulf Coast inventories falling to their lowest level since 2017, highlighting continued regional tightness during the peak summer driving season,” Hansen said in the X post.
“Distillate inventories, however, rose by 4.6 million barrels, providing some welcome relief to the segment of the refined products market that has experienced the greatest supply stress in recent months,” he added.
“Elsewhere, inventories at the Cushing delivery hub climbed back above 20 million barrels. U.S. crude exports increased to 3.7 million barrels per day but remained below the one-year average of 4.2 million barrels per day and well below the record 6.4 million barrels per day reached in May,” he continued.
Hansen went on to state in the post that domestic crude production was unchanged, “while four-week average implied demand for both gasoline and distillates eased, broadly in line with normal seasonal trends”.
To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com
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