The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 1.455 million barrels for the week ending February 28. Analysts had expected a smaller 300,000-barrel draw.
This offsets just a small part of the 12 million barrels of builds in U.S. crude oil inventories so far this year, according to Oilprice calculations of API data.
Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stayed at 395.3 million barrels in the week ending February 28. Inventory levels in the SPR are hundreds of millions shy of the levels in inventory prior to the SPR withdrawal that took place under the Biden Administration.
At 11:22 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down $1.48 (-2.07%) on the day at $70.14—a nearly $3 per barrel dip from this time last week and a $6 per barrel drop over the last two weeks. Oil prices began their slide on Monday after OPEC+ said it would begin the process of slowing unwinding its production cuts beginning April 1. The U.S. benchmark WTI was trading down on the day as well, by $1.17 (-1.71%) at $67.20—a nearly $2 per barrel decrease from last week’s level.
Gasoline inventories fell in the week ending February 28, by 1.249 million barrels, adding onto the previous week’s 537,000-barrel increase. As of last week, gasoline inventories are now just slightly below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.
Distillate inventories saw a build this week, adding 1.136 million barrels in the latest week. In the week prior, distillate inventories fell 1.109 million barrels. Distillate inventories were already about 8% below the five-year average as of the week ending February 21, the latest EIA data shows.
Cushing inventories—the benchmark crude stored and traded at the key delivery point for U.S. futures contracts in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose 1.630 million barrels for the week, after falling 1.182 million barrels in the week prior.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
More Top Reads From Oilprice.com
