U.S. Crude-Oil Inventories Continue to Decline

U.S. crude-oil inventories saw another small decline last week, with U.S. crude-oil production also dropping to its lowest level this year, according to data released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Stockpiles and Production Levels

• Commercial crude-oil stockpiles fell by 600,000 barrels last week to 456.8 million barrels, now around 2% above the five-year average.
• Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. stocks, decreased by 2.6 million barrels from the previous week to 35.7 million barrels.
• U.S. crude-oil production fell by 100,000 barrels a day from the previous week to 12.2 million barrels a day, matching the lowest weekly reading since late December.

Gasoline and Distillate Stocks

• Gasoline stockpiles slipped by 786,000 barrels to 217.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations of a 1.7-million-barrel decline.
• Distillate stocks, mainly diesel fuel, declined by 245,000 barrels to 117.9 million barrels, and are currently 14% below the five-year average.

Refining Capacity

• The refining capacity utilization rate unexpectedly fell by 0.9 percentage points from the previous week to 93.4%, contrary to expectations for a 0.1-percentage-point increase.

These figures indicate that U.S. crude-oil inventories remain on a downward trend, driven by declining production levels. Gasoline and distillate stocks also saw decreases, while the refining capacity utilization rate experienced an unexpected decline.

Note: These values are in millions of barrels, except for the refinery use which is expressed in percentage points.