US crude stocks fall 1.9m barrels as petrol builds
United States crude oil inventories fell by 1.9 million barrels in the week ended 23 October, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday 28 October. The drop took total stocks to 410.6 million barrels, against analyst expectations in a Reuters poll for a small rise of 15,000 barrels. Stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for US futures, fell by 624,000 barrels, and stocks on the Gulf Coast dropped to their lowest level since December 2024.
Petrol builds while diesel draws
The headline fall masked a split between products. Petrol inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels to 209.2 million, against expectations for a fall of 0.9 million, while distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels to 102.8 million, a larger draw than the 0.9 million expected. Refineries processed 123,000 fewer barrels per day and utilisation slipped 0.6 percentage points to 92.8 percent. Net crude imports fell by 796,000 barrels per day, while exports rose by 1.4 million barrels per day to 4.85 million.
Prices hold gains, but export figure questioned
Oil futures kept their gains after the release. Brent was trading at $115.66 a barrel, up $1.78, and US West Texas Intermediate at $102.38, up $2.48, at 11 a.m. Eastern Time — intraday levels, not settlement prices. TradeStation strategist David Russell said falling distillate stocks left diesel well below seasonal norms, giving little hope of price relief in the near term. One figure drew a challenge: Kpler analyst Matt Smith said the EIA appeared to have overestimated crude exports, with observed loadings about 1 million barrels per day lower than reported, which he said brought other elements of the balance into question. Readers should therefore treat the export figure, and the balance built on it, with that caveat in mind.
