SPR Sinks Toward Operational Minimum as U.S. Crude Inventories Build

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 4.2 million barrels in the week ending August 21. Analysts had expected a 1.9 million-barrel build. In the week prior, US crude oil inventories fell by 328,000.

Commercial crude oil inventories excluding the SPR have lost just over 45 million barrels over the last nineteen weeks, with US crude inventories up 5.8 million for the year, according to API data, kept in check by draws from the SPR.

For the week ending August 21, another 3.7 million barrels left the SPR to aid commercial inventories, bringing the new total inventory held in the SPR to 289.7 million barrels—a level that is 442 million barrels shy of maximum capacity.

The generally accepted operational minimum for oil in the SPR is between 250-300 million barrels, below which the reserve may find it difficult to pump and process oil efficiently.

US production for the week ending August 14 rose to 13.830 million bpd, up from 13.805 in the week prior, and up 503,000 bpd from a year earlier.

At 2:09 pm ET on Tuesday, Brent crude was trading down on the day at $88.38 (-4.11%), a nearly $3 per barrel loss week over week.

WTI was also trading down on the day, by $2.90 per barrel (-3.39%) at $82.13, down more than $3.50 per barrel from this time last week.

Gasoline inventories fell this week by 3.2 million barrels in the week ending August 21. In the week prior, gasoline inventories rose by 1.076 million barrels. In the week prior, gasoline inventories were already 5% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories fell by 500,000 barrels, after a 2.797-barrel loss in the week prior. Distillate inventories were 13% below the five-year average heading into this reporting period, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventory—the inventory kept at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract—rose by 1 million barrels over the reporting period after falling by 1.439 million barrels in the week prior.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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