USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop by 8MM Barrels Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 8.0 million barrels from the week ending May 22 to the week ending May 29.

That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on June 3 and included data for the week ending May 29.

This EIA report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 433.7 million barrels on May 29, 441.7 million barrels on May 22, and 436.1 million barrels on May 30, 2025. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 357.1 million barrels on May 29, 365.1 million barrels on May 22, and 401.8 million barrels on May 30, 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.

The EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report revealed that 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 1.573 billion barrels on May 29. Total petroleum stocks were down 10.6 million barrels week on week and down 63.7 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

“At 433.7 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about three percent below the five-year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its report.

“Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 3.4 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 increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.5 million barrels last week and are about three percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 2.1 million barrels from last week and are 39 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.9 million barrels per day during the week ending May 29, according to the EIA’s report, which highlighted that this was 90,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 94.7 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.4 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, the report noted, outlining that this was an increase of 1.2 million barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.9 million barrels per day, 4.5 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 780,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 121,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels per day, up by 3.0 percent from the same period last year, the EIA stated in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels per day, up by 0.6 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 1.2 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In a statement sent to Rigzone following the release of the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, David Russell, Global Head of Market Strategy at TradeStation, said, “the oil tanks are getting emptier each week Hormuz stays closed”.

“Another huge drop in the SPR shows how hard the government is working to cushion the blow of the massive supply shocks in the Middle East,” he added.

“Price pressures are growing into the summer. Combined with strong jobs and manufacturing numbers this week, today’s oil data could keep rates on an upward path into the Fed meeting in two weeks,” he continued.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone before the release of the EIA’s weekly petroleum status report, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 6.2 million barrels for the week ending May 29.

“This follows a 3.3 million barrel draw in the prior week, with the crude balance yet again realizing tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in that report.

“Beyond normal variability in flow items, we continue to note persistently high crude exports and SPR releases could inject considerable volatility into weekly stats,” they added.

“As we remain keenly focused on emerging signs of demand destruction in the U.S., last week’s stronger implied demand broke a trend of weakness in distillate, and to a lesser extent, gasoline prints,” they continued.

“From this week’s figures, we anticipate typical seasonal softness in implied demand driven by Memorial Day effects,” they went on to state.

The Macquarie strategists outlined in that report that, “within the crude balance”, for the week ending May 29, from refineries, they were looking for “a modest reduction in crude runs (-0.2 million barrels per day) following a robust print last week”.

“Among net imports, we model a moderate reduction, with exports (+1.2 million barrels per day) and imports (+0.8 million barrels per day) higher on a nominal basis,” they said.

The strategists warned that the 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 effectively flat figure on a nominal basis,” the strategists said in their report.

“Rounding out the picture, we anticipate another large SPR draw (-8.0 million barrels) for the week ending 5/29. While we model SPR releases as immediately benefitting commercial stocks, the precise timing of these flows could also add noise to weekly balances,” they added.

“Among products”, the strategists revealed in the report that they were looking for gasoline stocks “nearly flat (+0.1 million barrels), with builds in distillate (+1.3 million barrels) and jet (+1.6 million barrels)”.

“We model implied demand for these three products at ~13.7 million barrels per day for the week ending 5/29,” the strategists highlighted in their report.

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