Data released by the US Energy Information Administration on September 23 shows that for the week ending September 18, US commercial crude oil inventories increased by roughly 3 million barrels to 426.4 million barrels, standing about 2% above the average level for the same period over the past five years.

During the same week, gasoline and distillate fuel inventories both fell, showing a divergence between finished product and crude stockpile trends. By product category, commercial crude stockpiles rose by about 3 million barrels to 426.4 million barrels, gasoline dropped by around 1.7 million barrels to 206.0 million barrels, and distillates decreased by approximately 400,000 barrels to 107.4 million barrels.

Refinery crude processing volumes retreated, with US refineries processing an average of 16.811 million barrels of crude per day during the week, a drop of 519,000 barrels from the prior week. Capacity utilization declined from 96.8% to 94.0%, with refineries in the Midwest region seeing the largest reduction in crude runs.

Both crude imports and exports decreased, but the export decline was steeper, causing net crude imports to increase compared with the previous week. Finished product stockpiles continued to slide, with gasoline inventories falling to 206.0 million barrels and distillate inventories dropping to 107.4 million barrels. Distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, were about 12% below the five-year average for the same period, while gasoline was roughly 6% lower.

Over the past four weeks, average daily supply of US petroleum products was about 20.6 million barrels, up 0.5% year over year. While crude inventories recovered, key finished product stockpiles continued to be drawn down.