API data: US crude stockpiles drop 2.03 million barrels, SPR dips to 282.6 million
The American Petroleum Institute reported a 2.03 million-barrel decline in US crude inventories for the week ended October 23, following a steeper 4.93 million-barrel drop the prior week. Both Brent and WTI crude traded lower on the news.
Excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, commercial crude holdings have shed over 58 million barrels across the last 28 weeks, yet they sit just 7 million barrels under where they started the year. API figures suggest this cushion owes much to ongoing SPR releases.
During the seven days ending October 23, the government withdrew 100,000 barrels from the SPR to bolster commercial supply, leaving the reserve at 282.6 million barrels. That figure sits 431 million barrels under full capacity and edges closer to the 250-300 million-barrel band widely viewed as the threshold needed for efficient pumping and refining operations.
Domestic crude output for the week ending October 16 eased to 13.269 million barrels daily, down from 13.679 million the prior week and 360,000 barrels per day below last year’s pace.
Brent crude changed hands at $114.25 per barrel around mid-afternoon Wednesday, a 1.35% daily decline, though still over $5 above where it stood seven days earlier. WTI slid 2.29% to settle at $100.51 a barrel, roughly a dollar beneath last week’s comparable price.
Gasoline stocks climbed 2.39 million barrels, reversing a 2 million-barrel decline from the week before, when supplies sat 5% under the five-year seasonal norm, per Energy Information Administration figures. Distillate inventories gained 380,000 barrels after losing 2.6 million the previous week; distillate levels had been tracking 9% below their five-year average. Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma—the delivery hub for WTI futures contracts—declined by 453,000 barrels, offsetting a 900,000-barrel increase recorded the week prior.
These weekly shifts in US crude oil inventories, combined with the pace of SPR drawdowns, directly influence benchmark oil prices and can spill over into currency markets tied to energy exports as traders balance American supply figures against demand signals.
Source: OilPrice.com