U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 2.031 million barrels for the week ending October 23, 2023. This decrease comes after a significant drop of 4.93 million barrels in the previous week. Overall, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding strategic reserves, have decreased by more than 58 million barrels over the past 28 weeks.
Strategic Reserves and Oil Production Status
According to data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), U.S. crude oil inventories are now only 7 million barrels below the level at the start of 2023. For the week ending October 23, 100,000 barrels of crude oil were withdrawn from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), contributing to the increase in commercial inventories. This action has reduced the total reserves in the SPR to 282.6 million barrels, while this level is still 431 million barrels below the maximum possible capacity.
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The normal operational minimum level for oil reserves in the SPR is between 250 and 300 million barrels, and if it falls below this threshold, storage and processing of oil may become effectively difficult. Additionally, U.S. oil production for the week ending October 16 has decreased to 13.269 million barrels per day, showing a significant drop compared to the previous week, which was 13.679 million barrels per day. This amount is also 360,000 barrels per day less than last year.
Changes in Oil Prices and Gasoline Inventories
As of 4:17 PM Eastern Time, the price of Brent oil has reached $114.25 per barrel, reflecting a decrease of 1.35% for the day, while the price of WTI oil has also decreased by 2.29% to $100.51 per barrel. The price of WTI oil has dropped nearly $1 compared to last week.
Gasoline inventories experienced an increase of 2.39 million barrels for the week ending October 23. This comes after a decrease of 2 million barrels in the previous week. Additionally, according to recent data, distillate inventories have increased by 380,000 barrels, contrasting with a decrease of 2.6 million barrels in the previous week. Distillate inventories have previously been 9% lower than the five-year average for this time of year.
Finally, inventories at Cushing, known as the delivery hub for WTI crude oil futures contracts, decreased by 453,000 barrels, following an increase of 900,000 barrels in the previous week.
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