The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its inventory report on Wednesday, October 22, showing that U.S. crude oil, gasoline, and distillate inventories fell last week due to stronger refining activity and demand.
The EIA said that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 961,000 barrels to 422.8 million barrels in the week ending October 17, compared with market expectations for a 1.2 million barrel increase.
The EIA said crude oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 770,000 barrels.
Crude oil futures fell after the report was released, but remained above zero.
UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said, "Increased refinery demand contributed to the decline in crude oil inventories, while a rebound in potential oil demand drove the decline in refined product inventories."
According to EIA data, capacity utilization on the U.S. East Coast rose slightly to 93.7%, the highest level since January 2023.
Net crude oil imports by U.S. East Coast refineries increased by 19,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 847,000 bpd last week, the highest level since May 2024.
U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels to 216.7 million barrels, compared with expectations for a decrease of 809,000 barrels.
U.S. distillate fuel inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels to 115.6 million barrels, compared with expectations for a decrease of 1.9 million barrels.
U.S. refinery crude oil runs increased by 601,000 bpd to 15.73 million bpd, compared with the four-week average of 15.831 million bpd. Refinery utilization rose by 2.9% to 88.6%.
Total oil supply, an indicator of demand, increased by 288,000 bpd to 20.01 million bpd. Total oil demand over the past four weeks was 20.47 million bpd, down 0.1% from the same period last year.
"Our total oil demand is over 20 million barrels per day. That shows there's strength on the oil demand side," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group.
The EIA said U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 656,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week. Exports fell by 263,000 bpd to 4.2 million bpd.
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