Crude and Gasoline Inventories Soar Amid Large Draw in Distillate Stocks

The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United rose by 5.025 million barrels for the week ending January 24. Analysts had expected a 3.17-million-barrel build.

For the week prior, the API reported a 2.86 million barrel build in U.S. crude oil inventories, while gasoline inventories saw a hefty build for multiple weeks in a row.

In 2024, crude oil inventories in the United States dropped by more than 12 million barrels, according to the API’s inventory data, with the downward trend continuing beyond the new year.  

Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 0.3 million barrels as of January 31. SPR inventories are now at 395.1 million barrels, a figure that is still nearly 240 off from the inventories carried prior to the SPR withdrawal that took place under the Biden Administration.  

At 3:21 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up $0.04 (+0.05%) on the day at $76—a nearly $1.50 per barrel dip from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was trading down on the day by $0.59 (-0.81%) at $72.57—also roughly $1 less per barrel than last week’s level.  

Adding to the overall petroleum inventory builds this week, gasoline inventories rose by 5.426 million barrels on top of last week’s 1.89-million-barrel increase. As of last week, gasoline inventories are slightly below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories saw their second large decline in a row, dropping 6.979 million barrels in the latest week. In the week prior, distillate inventories shed 3.75 million barrels. Distillate inventories were already about 9% below the five-year average as of the week ending January 24, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories—the benchmark crude stored and traded at the key delivery point for U.S. futures contracts in Cushing, Oklahoma—rose by 110,000 barrels, according to API data, after sinking by 144,000 barrels in the previous week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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