USA Crude Oil Stocks Rise Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 2.5 million barrels from the week ending July 24 to the week ending July 31.

That’s what the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on August 5 and included data for the week ending July 31.

This EIA report showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 407.0 million barrels on July 31, 404.5 million barrels on July 24, and 423.7 million barrels on August 1, 2025. The July 31 figure marked a 0.6 percent week on week increase and a 3.9 percent year on year decrease, the report showed.

Crude oil in the SPR stood at 304.8 million barrels on July 31, 307.7 million barrels on July 24, and 403.0 million barrels on August 1, 2025, the report outlined. The July 31 figure marked a 0.9 percent week on week decrease and a 24.4 percent year on year decrease, the report highlighted.

In a statement posted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) website on March 11, U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright outlined that the DOE would be releasing 172 million barrels of oil from the SPR as part of a wider plan from the International Energy Agency to release 400 million barrels of oil and refined products.

The EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report showed 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 1.525 billion barrels on July 31. Total petroleum stocks were down 0.8 million barrels week on week and down 137.3 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.

“At 407.0 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 decreased by 1.6 million barrels last week and are seven 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 3.5 million barrels last week and are about 12 percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels from last week and are 32 percent above the five-year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 17.2 million barrels per day during the week ending July 31, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 183,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 96.5 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased, averaging 5.2 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.2 million barrels per day last week, the report stated. It pointed out that this was an increase of 515,000 barrels per day from the previous week. “Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.8 million barrels per day, 4.4 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 463,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 99,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels per day, according to the report, which outlined that this was a 0.9 percent decrease from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.0 million barrels per day, up by 0.6 percent from the same period last year,” it said.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, up by 1.8 percent from the same period last year,” it added.

“Jet fuel product supplied was up 3.6 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it went on to state.

The EIA’s report also highlighted that the price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $86.16 per barrel on July 31, “$5.58 less than a week ago, and $17.77 more than a year ago” and that the national average retail price for regular gasoline decreased to $4.079 per gallon on August 3, “$0.017 less than last week’s price, and $0.939 more than the year-ago price”. The national average retail diesel fuel price increased $0.035 to $5.348 per gallon, the report highlighted, noting that this was $1.548 more than the price one year ago.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team prior to 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 up by 2.5 million barrels for the week ending July 31.

“This follows a 7.2 million barrel draw for the week ending July 24, with the crude balance realizing significantly tighter than our expectations alongside a multi-year high in crude runs,” the strategists said in that report.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average U.S. regular gasoline price is $4.0422 per gallon, as of August 7. Yesterday’s average was $4.0633 per gallon, the week ago average was $4.1061 per gallon, the month ago average was $3.7901 per gallon, and the year ago average was $3.1665 per gallon, the site highlighted.

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