USA Crude Oil Stocks Increase Week on Week

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 3.6 million barrels from the week ending January 9 to the week ending January 16, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) highlighted in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

Crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 426.0 million barrels on January 16, 422.4 million barrels on January 9, and 411.7 million barrels on January 17, 2025, the EIA report, which was released on January 22 and included data for the week ending January 16, showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 414.5 million barrels on January 16, 413.7 million barrels on January 9, and 394.6 million barrels on January 17, 2025, the report revealed.

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 1.722 billion barrels on January 16, the report highlighted. Total petroleum stocks were up 8.3 million barrels week on week and up 100.3 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.

“At 426.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about two 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 6.0 million barrels from last week and are about five percent above the five year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories increased last week,” it added.

“Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.3 million barrels last week and are about one percent below the five year average for this time of year. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 2.1 million barrels from last week and are about 39 percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it continued.

U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.6 million barrels per day during the week ending January 16, the EIA noted in its report, highlighting that this was 354,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.

“Refineries operated at 93.3 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.

“Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 8.8 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased by 210,000 barrels per day last week, averaging 5.1 million barrels per day,” it added.

U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, according to the report, which outlined that this was a decrease of 645,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

“Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.2 million barrels per day, 5.3 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 412,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 215,000 barrels per day,” it added.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million barrels per day, 1.5 percent above the same period last year, the EIA stated in its report.

“Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.2 million barrels per day, down by 0.6 percent from the same period last year,” it noted.

“Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.5 million barrels per day over the past four weeks, down by 1.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 10.2 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it added.

In an oil and gas report sent to Rigzone by the Macquarie team ahead of the release of this week’s EIA report, Macquarie strategists revealed that they were forecasting that U.S. crude inventories would be up by 2.0 million barrels for the week ending January 16.

“This follows a 3.4 million barrel build in the prior week, with the crude balance realizing somewhat tighter relative to our expectations, alongside a large gasoline build,” the strategists, including Macquarie energy strategist Walt Chancellor, said in the Macquarie report.

The EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report also highlighted that the price for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil was $59.40 per barrel on January 16, which it pointed out was $0.44 more than a week ago and $19.16 less than a year ago.

The EIA report noted that the national average retail price for regular gasoline decreased to $2.806 per gallon on January 19. It highlighted that this was $0.027 more than last week’s price and $0.303 less than the year-ago price. The national average retail diesel fuel price increased $0.071 to $3.530 per gallon, the EIA stated in its report, outlining that this was $0.185 less than the price one year ago.

According to the AAA Fuel Prices website, as of January 23, the average U.S. regular gasoline price is $2.862 per gallon and the average U.S. diesel price is $3.554 per gallon.

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