Crude, gasoline build weigh on oil prices

Crude oil inventories in the United States jumped this week by 914,000 barrels for the week ending June 21, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API), after analysts had expected a 3 million barrel draw.

For the week prior, the API reported a 2.264 million barrel build in crude inventories.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 1.3 million barrels as of June 21. Inventories are now at 372.2 million barrels—the highest level since December 2022, but still well below the 656 million barrels in inventory in June 2020.

Oil prices were trading down ahead of the API data release on Tuesday. At 3:35 pm ET, Brent crude was trading down $1.09 on the day at $84.92—and down about $0.30 per barrel from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading down on the day at -1.05% to $80.77—down roughly $0.70 from this time last week.

Gasoline inventories rose this week, by 3.843 million barrels, after last week’s 1.077-million-barrel decrease. As of last week, gasoline inventories are 1% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories fell this week by 1.178 million barrels, compared to last week’s 538,000-barrel rise. Distillates were about 8% below the five-year average for the week ending May June 14, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories fell this week, according to API data, by 350,000 barrels after rising by 524,000 barrels in the previous week.