Oil steady despite crude inventory build

Crude oil inventories in the United States rose by 1.643 million barrels for the week ending October 18, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API). Analysts had expected a build of 700,000 barrels.

For the week prior, the API reported a 1.58-million-barrel draw in crude inventories.

So far this year, crude oil inventories have slumped by nearly 6 million barrels since the beginning of the year, according to API data.

On Tuesday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) rose by 0.7 million barrels as of October 18. SPR inventories are now at 384.6 million barrels, a figure that reflects an increase of about 37 million from its multi-decade low last summer, yet 250 million down from when President Biden took office.

At 4:30 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up $1.44 (+1.94%) on the day at $75.73—up roughly $1.30 per barrel loss from last Wednesday. The U.S. benchmark WTI was also trading up on the day by $1.68 (+2.38%) at $72.24—a $1.60 per barrel gain over last Wednesday’s level.

Gasoline inventories fell this week by 2.019 million barrels, on top of last week’s 5.926-million-barrel decrease. As of last week, gasoline inventories are 4% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories fell by 1.478 million barrels, on top of last week’s 2.672-million-barrel decrease. Distillates were already about 10% below the five-year average as of the week ending October 11, the latest EIA data shows.

Cushing inventories—the benchmark crude stored and traded at the key delivery point for U.S. futures contracts in Cushing, Oklahoma—fell by 216,000 barrels, according to API data, compared to the 410,000-barrel build of the previous week.