USA Crude Oil Inventories Decrease Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 2.8 million barrels from the week ending May 16 to the week ending May 23, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

This report was released on May 29 and included data for the week ending May 23. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 440.4 million barrels on May 23, 443.2 million barrels on May 16, and 454.7 million barrels on May 24, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 401.3 million barrels on May 23, 400.5 million barrels on May 16, and 369.3 million barrels on May 24, 2024, 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 1.623 billion barrels on May 23, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 0.2 million barrels week on week and down 8.7 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.

“At 440.4 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 2.4 million barrels from last week and are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week and are about 17 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by two million barrels from last week and are four percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3 million barrels per day during the week ending May 23, according to the report, which highlighted that this was 162,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 90.2 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased by 100,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 4.8 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, the report noted. It outlined that this was an increase of 262,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about six million barrels per day, 10.3 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA stated in the report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 755,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 114,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels a day, the report noted. It pointed out that this was down by 0.2 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, down by 1.5 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 2.6 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 5.3 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

The EIA also noted in its report that the national average retail price for regular gasoline decreased to $3.160 per gallon on May 26, 2025, “$0.013 less than last week’s price, and $0.417 less than the year-ago price”. The national average retail diesel fuel price decreased $0.049 to $3.487 per gallon, $0.271 lower than the price one year ago, the EIA added.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, as of May 30, in the U.S., the average price of regular gasoline is $3.162 per gallon and the average price of diesel is $3.536 per gallon.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Tuesday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 2.4 million barrels for the week ending May 23.

“This follows a 1.3 million barrel build in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing significantly looser than our expectations,” the Macquarie strategists stated in that report.

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