The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its inventory report on Wednesday, July 30, showing increases in crude oil and distillate inventories in the United States last week, but a decline in gasoline inventories.

The EIA reported that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose by 7.7 million barrels to 426.7 million barrels in the week ending July 25, compared to market expectations for a decrease of 1.3 million barrels.

The EIA reported that crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, depot increased by 690,000 barrels during the week.

Crude oil futures prices dipped slightly after the report showed an unexpectedly large increase in U.S. crude oil inventories, but later rebounded. As of 1509 GMT, ICE Brent crude futures were trading at $73.08 per barrel, up 57 cents; U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 55 cents at $69.76 per barrel.

The EIA reported that U.S. crude oil exports fell by 1.2 million barrels per day during the week. The EIA reported that U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 1.316 million barrels per day (bpd) to 3.438 million bpd that week.

UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said: "I consider the report bearish, as the sharp drop in U.S. crude oil exports – likely due to the narrowing discount of WTI crude oil to Brent – led to a significant increase in inventories."

"But for now, Trump's threats against Russia appear to be having a greater impact on oil prices," he added.

According to a previous report by Xinhua News Agency, U.S. President Trump said on the 29th that he had set a 10-day deadline for Russia and Ukraine to reach a peace agreement. If Russia fails to make progress on this, it will face new U.S. sanctions.

The EIA report showed that U.S. refinery crude oil processing fell by 25,000 bpd to 16.911 million bpd, and U.S. refinery capacity utilization fell by 0.1 percentage point to 95.4%. Refining activity at U.S. Gulf Coast refineries reached its highest level since July 2024.

The EIA revised its refinery data for last week, citing inaccurate utilization rates in recent reports for the Rocky Mountain region.

U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 2.7 million barrels to 228.4 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 600,000-barrel decrease.

Gasoline supplies, a measure of demand, rose to 9.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last week, up from just under 9 million bpd the previous week.

U.S. distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.6 million barrels to 113.5 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 300,000-barrel increase.

Distillate demand also jumped, rising by 262,000 bpd to 3.61 million bpd; jet fuel demand reached its highest level since December 2017.

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