Crude Oil Inventories Build Again, But Products Draw

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose this week, with a 3.262 million barrel build, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Tuesday, compared to estimates of a 1.448 million barrel draw.

The total number of barrels of crude oil gained so far this year is now more than 59 million barrels.

This week, SPR inventory held steady for the tenth week in a row at 371.6 million barrels-the lowest amount of crude oil in the SPR since December 1983.

U.S. crude oil production stayed at 12.2 million bpd for week ending March 10. U.S. production is now 900,000 bpd lower than the peak production seen in March 2020, but 600,000 bpd higher than this time last year.

Oil prices traded up on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release after sustaining significant losses in the days week prior due to the panic surrounding the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. 

By 2:37 p.m. EST, WTI was trading up $1.83 (+2.63%) on the day to $69.48 per barrel, a loss of more than $2 per barrel on the week. Brent crude was trading up $1.58 (+2.14%) on the day at $75.37 $77.88-down roughly $2.50 per barrel from this same time last week.

WTI was trading at $69.50 shortly after the data release.

While crude oil saw a build, it was the only build this week for the second week in a row, with product inventories falling again.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.09 million barrels after last week's data showed the fuel inventories fell by a sizeable 4.587 million barrels. Distillates fell by 1.84 million barrels after decreasing by 2.886 million bpd in the week prior. GasBuddy data showed that gasoline demand was up 7% this past Sunday and Monday compared to the relative four-week averages, and the highest levels since September 25, 2022.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, decreased by 760,000 barrels-on top of the 946,000 barrel decline that the API reported last week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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