Crude inventories rose 3.378 million barrels, data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed on Tuesday.
According to API data, US crude stockpiles rose by 13 million barrels last year, while crude oil stored in the country’s strategic petroleum reserves fell by 221 million barrels. This week, the SPR inventory held steady at 371.6 million barrels for the second straight week as the emergency releases announced by the Biden administration last spring are now complete. The SPR now contains the lowest amount of crude oil since early December 1983.
Oil prices traded lower on Tuesday ahead of the data release. As of 3:49 p.m. EST on the day, WTI was trading up $1.48 (-1.81%) at $80.14 a barrel – a weekly gain of around $1 a barrel. Brent crude was up $2 (-2.27%) on the day at $86.19 – a weekly gain of around $1.50 a barrel.
US crude production in the week ended January 13 remained at 2.2 million bpd for the second straight week – the highest rate of production since last August. US production is still 900,000 bpd below peak March 2020 production.
WTI traded at $80.12 shortly after the data release.
Gasoline inventories rose 620,000 barrels after last week’s API data showed fuel inventories rose 2.8 million barrels last week. Distillates fell 1.929 million barrels after falling 1.8 million bpd the week before.
Inventories in Cushing, Oklahoma, rose 3.378 million barrels, on top of the 3.7 million barrel increase reported last week.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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