Crude Oil Inventories Build But Products Take A Tumble

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose this week, with a 1.155 million barrel build, the American Petroleum Institute (API) data showed on Tuesday, bringing the total number of barrels gained so far this year to more than 56 million barrels.

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

Oil prices traded down on Tuesday in the run-up to the data release, with the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank spooking the markets.

At 2:25 p.m. EST, WTI was trading down $2.90 (-3.88%) on the day to $71.90 per barrel, a dip of nearly $6 per barrel on the week. Brent crude was trading down $2.89 (-3.58%) on the day at $77.88—down roughly $5.50 per barrel from this same time last week. It is the lowest price this year.

U.S. crude oil production fell to 12.2 million bpd for week ending March 3. 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.

WTI was trading at $71.47 shortly after the data release.

While crude oil saw a build, it was the only build this week, with product inventories falling.

Gasoline inventories fell by 4.587 million barrels after last week’s data showed the fuel inventories rose by 1.840 million barrels. Distillates fell by 2.886 million barrels after increasing by 1.927 million bpd in the week prior.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, decreased by 946,000 barrels more than undoing the 24,000 barrel hike reported last week.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:

• Bank Collapse Contagion Fears Spread To Oil Prices
• U.S. Oil Drilling Activity Cools Off In The Permian
• Spain Takes 84% More Russian LNG Than Before Invasion