USA Crude Oil Stocks Drop More Than 7MM Barrels WoW

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 7.2 million barrels from the week ending July 17 to the week ending July 24, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

In this report, which was released on July 29 and included data for the week ending July 24, the EIA showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 404.5 million barrels on July 24, 411.7 million barrels on July 17, and 426.7 million barrels on July 25, 2025. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 307.7 million barrels on July 24, 311.4 million barrels on July 17, and 402.7 million barrels on July 25, 2025, the report outlined.

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 1.526 billion barrels on July 24, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 7.5 million barrels week on week and down 134.2 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.

“At 404.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about six 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 slightly increased from last week and are seven percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending component inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.1 million barrels last week and are about 10 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels from last week and are 34 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.3 million barrels per day during the week ending July 24, according to the EIA’s report, which noted that this was 271,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 97.2 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA revealed in its report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.9 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased, averaging 5.4 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million barrels per day last week, the report noted, outlining that this was a decrease of 124,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.7 million barrels per day, seven 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 659,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 98,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.3 million barrels per day, the EIA stated in its report, noting that this was down by 2.3 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels per day, down by 0.3 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 4.7 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 5.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone this week, ahead of the release of the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be down by 2.5 million barrels for the week ending July 24.

“This follows a 2.0 million barrel build for the week ending July 17, with the crude balance realizing slightly looser than our expectations,” the strategists said in this report.

“Within this week’s crude balance, from refineries, we look for a minor increase in crude runs, holding at ~17.1 million barrels per day,” the strategists added in the report.

“Among net imports, we model a meaningful reduction, with exports up (+0.4 million barrels per day) and imports down (-0.2 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” they continued.

The Macquarie strategists warned in this report 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 a modest increase (+0.2 million barrels per day),” the strategists went on to state.

“Rounding out the picture, we anticipate a smaller SPR draw (-3.7 million barrels) for the week ending 7/24. 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.

The Macquarie strategists also noted in this report that, “among products”, they looked for “slight builds across the board (gasoline/ distillate/jet +0.3/+0.5/+0.1 million barrels)”.

“We model implied demand for these three products at ~14.5 million barrels per day for the week ending 7/24,” they concluded.

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