USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop More Than 6MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 6.2 million barrels from the week ending April 17 to the week ending April 24.

That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on April 29 and included data for the week ending April 24.

This EIA report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 459.5 million barrels on April 24, 465.7 million barrels on April 17, and 440.4 million barrels on April 25, 2025. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 397.9 million barrels on April 24, 405.0 million barrels on April 17, and 398.5 million barrels on April 25, 2025, the report revealed.

In a release posted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) website on April 17, the DOE’s Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office announced awards of contracts to exchange 26 million barrels of crude oil from the SPR, “marking the next phase of DOE’s execution of the United States’ 172 million barrel contribution to the International Energy Agency’s collective action to stabilize global oil supply”.

“These awards follow DOE’s recent Request for Proposal for this portion of the emergency exchange, with deliveries beginning immediately as the Department continues to move quickly to address short-term supply disruptions and strengthen energy security for the United States,” the release added.

Total petroleum stocks - including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils - stood at 1.645 billion barrels on April 24, according to the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report. Total petroleum stocks were down 24.1 million barrels week on week and up 34.5 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

“At 459.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about one percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 6.1 million barrels from last week and are two percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending component inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 4.5 million barrels last week and are about 11 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels from last week and are 62 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.1 million barrels per day during the week ending April 24, according to the report, which pointed out that this was 85,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 89.6 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA stated in its report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased, averaging 4.9 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.8 million barrels per day last week, the report noted. It outlined that this was a decrease of 329,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.9 million barrels per day, 0.7 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 344,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 126,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.6 million barrels per day, according to the EIA’s report, which pointed out that this was an increase of 4.6 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.0 million barrels per day, up by 1.2 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA noted.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.0 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 4.8 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was down 4.6 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone this week, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 2.0 million barrels for the week ending April 24.

“This follows a 1.9 million barrel build in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing relatively close to our expectations,” the strategists said in the report.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on April 22 and included data for the week ending April 17, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, increased by 1.9 million barrels from the week ending April 10 to the week ending April 17.

To contact the author, email andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com