USA Crude Oil Inventories Drop Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by two million barrels from the week ending April 25 to the week ending May 2, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

That EIA report was released on May 7 and included data for the week ending May 2. It showed that crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 438.4 million barrels on May 2, 440.4 million barrels on April 25, and 459.5 million barrels on May 3, 2024. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 399.1 million barrels on May 2, 398.5 million barrels on April 25, and 367.2 million barrels on May 3, 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 1.612 billion barrels on May 2, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were up 1.7 million barrels week on week and up 5.7 million barrels year on year, the report revealed.

“At 438.4 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about seven 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 increased by 0.2 million barrels from last week and are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased and blending components inventories decreased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 1.1 million barrels last week and are about 13 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories increased by one million barrels from last week and are 11 percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.1 million barrels per day during the week ending May 2, the EIA noted in the report, adding that this was 7,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 89 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report.

“Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.7 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased by 41,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 4.7 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged six million barrels per day last week, the EIA stated in the report. It highlighted that this was an increase of 557,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 5.8 million barrels per day, 13.3 percent less than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA stated in its report.

“Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 765,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 117,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.8 million barrels a day, the EIA said in its report. It pointed out that this was down by 0.6 percent from the same period last year.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, up by 3.5 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, up by 3.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 16.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone late Monday 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 2.

“This compares to our early look which anticipated a 5.2 million barrel build,” the Macquarie strategists said in that report.

The EIA also highlighted in its report that the price for West Texas Intermediate crude oil was $59.67 per barrel on May 2, “$4.18 less than a week ago, and $19.98 less than a year ago”.

It went on to state in the report that the national average retail price for regular gasoline increased to $3.147 per gallon on May 5, 2025, “$0.014 above last week’s price, and $0.496 less than the year-ago price”.

“The national average retail diesel fuel price decreased $0.017 to $3.497 per gallon, $0.397 lower than the price one year ago,” the EIA pointed out in the report.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, the average price of regular gasoline in the U.S. is $3.145 per gallon and the average price of diesel in the country is $3.532 per gallon, as of May 9.

The EIA’s next weekly petroleum status report is scheduled to be released on May 14. It will include data for the week ending May 9.

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