SunSirs: U.S. Crude Oil and Gasoline Inventories Declined Last Week, While Distillate Stocks Rise

On Wednesday, September 17, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that U.S. crude oil prices fell sharply last week as net imports fell to a record low while exports jumped to a near two-year high.

Gasoline inventories also unexpectedly fell during the week, while distillate inventories rose more than expected.

Data showed that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 9.3 million barrels to 415.36 million barrels in the week ending September 12, compared with market expectations for a decrease of 857,000 barrels.

Crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, warehouse fell by 296,000 barrels.

Crude oil futures prices rose after the larger-than-expected inventory draw, but later gave up some gains and remained lower. At 11:33 PM Beijing time, Brent crude futures for November delivery fell $0.43, or 0.63%, to $68.04 a barrel, while U.S. crude futures for October delivery fell $0.43, or 0.67%, to $64.09 a barrel.

U.S. crude oil exports increased by 2.53 million barrels per day to 5.28 million barrels per day, the highest level since December 2023. U.S. net crude oil imports fell by 3.11 million barrels per day, the lowest level since records began in 2001.

Some analysts believe the large crude oil exports may be an isolated incident.

"Crude oil export data is very volatile. Last week, exports were extremely low, and this week they were extremely high," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital.

Analysts also said that a jump in distillate inventories raised concerns about demand, limiting oil price gains.

"It looks like the market is reacting to diesel, which is the weak spot in the overall crude oil market," said Phil Flynn, senior analyst at Price Futures Group.

EIA data showed that distillate fuel inventories, including diesel and heating oil, rose by 4 million barrels to 124.68 million barrels this week, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1 million-barrel increase.

U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels to 217.65 million barrels during the week, compared with market expectations for a 100,000-barrel increase.

Refinery crude oil processing fell by 394,000 barrels per day in the week ending September 12, and refinery capacity utilization fell by 1.6 percentage points to 93.3%.

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