USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop Almost 8MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 7.9 million barrels from the week ending May 8 to the week ending May 15.

That’s according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on May 20 and included data for the week ending May 15.

According to this report, crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 445.0 million barrels on May 15, 452.9 million barrels on May 8, and 443.2 million barrels on May 16, 2025. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 374.2 million barrels on May 15, 384.1 million barrels on May 8, and 400.5 million barrels on May 15, 2025, the report revealed.

In a statement posted on its website on May 11, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced contract awards for the exchange of approximately 53.3 million barrels of crude from the SPR’s Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, Big Hill, and West Hackberry sites.

“Today’s announcement marks 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 supplies,” this statement noted.

“This action builds on earlier exchange actions, which have already awarded approximately 80 million barrels from the Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, and West Hackberry sites,” it 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 1.601 billion barrels on May 15, according to the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report. Total petroleum stocks were down 18.9 million barrels week on week and down 22.2 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

The report showed that total crude oil stocks stood at 819.2 million barrels, as of May 15. This represented a weekly drop of 17.8 million barrels and a yearly drop of 24.5 million barrels, the EIA report outlined.

“At 445.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about two percent below the five-year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels from last week and are five 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 increased by 0.4 million barrels last week and are about nine percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.4 million barrels from last week and are 51 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.

In the report, the EIA noted that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3 million barrels per day during the week ending May 15. It pointed out that this was 80,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 91.6 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in its report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.3 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 5.0 million barrels per day,” it added.

The report also noted that U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.0 million barrels per day last week. This marked an increase of 116,000 barrels per day from the previous week, the report outlined.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.8 million barrels per day, 1.5 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 547,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 173,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.2 million barrels per day, up by 3.1 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in the report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels per day, up by 0.5 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA added.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 1.4 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 1.0 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.

In a market analysis sent to Rigzone on Thursday, Naeem Aslam, Chief Investment Officer at Zaye Capital Markets, highlighted that “U.S. commercial crude inventories fell by 7.86 million barrels, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve dropped by 9.9 million barrels, and total crude inventories fell by around 17.8 million barrels to 819.2 million barrels, the lowest level in 11 months”.

“Refinery utilization stood near 91.6 percent, while crude exports reached around 5.6 million barrels per day, showing physical demand remains active,” he added.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team on May 19, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would drop by 3.0 million barrels for the week ending May 15.

“This follows a 4.3 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in that report.

“Beyond normal variability in flow items, we again note persistently high crude exports and SPR releases could inject considerable volatility into weekly stats. We remain highly attuned to the potential for demand destruction in the coming weeks,” they added.

“While last week delivered an eyebrow-raising second consecutive very weak implied demand print in distillate, given underlying volatility in these figures, we do not yet see a definitive case for distillate demand destruction from the data,” they continued.

“In any event, for the week ending 5/15, from refineries, we look for a slight increase in crude runs (+0.1 million barrels per day); timing of turnarounds remains a key variable in this week’s crude balance,” they said.

The strategists went on to note that, “among net imports”, they modeled “a modest reduction, with exports (+0.4 million barrels per day) and imports (+0.1 million barrels per day) up on a nominal basis”.

They warned that timing of cargoes remained a source of potential volatility in the weekly crude balance.

“From implied domestic supply (prod.+adj. +transfers), we look for an increase (+0.4 million barrels per day). Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a larger SPR draw (-9.9 million barrels) for the week ending 5/15,” they said.

The strategists added that, “among products”, they looked for “draws in gasoline (-2.5 million barrels) and distillate (-1.9 million barrels) with jet stocks up (+1.0 million barrels)”.

“We model implied demand for these three products at 14.6 million barrels per day for the week ending May 15,” they went on to state.

In its previous weekly petroleum status report, which was released on May 13 and included data for the week ending May 8, the EIA highlighted that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the SPR, decreased by 4.3 million barrels from the week ending May 1 to the week ending May 8.

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