Informist, Thursday, Jul. 17, 2025

MUMBAI – Crude oil inventories in the US, excluding those in strategic petroleum reserves, fell by 3.9 million barrels to 422.2 million barrels in the week ended Friday, the US Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts polled by Dow Jones had expected stocks to remain unchanged from the previous week. The US crude oil inventories were about 8% below the five-year average for this time of the year, the report showed.

Petrol inventories rose by 3.4 million barrels from the previous week to 232.9 million barrels while analysts polled by Dow Jones had forecast a fall of 1.1 million barrels. Petrol stocks were slightly above the five-year average for this time of the year, the report said. Distillate fuel stocks rose by 4.2 million barrels to 107.0 million barrels in the week ended Friday while analysts polled by Dow Jones had expected a fall of 100,000 barrels. The distillate fuel stocks were nearly 21% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

According to the report, refinery utilisation fell to 93.9% from 94.7% the previous week. Crude oil production in the US, the largest producer of the commodity, fell 10,000 barrels to 13.37 million barrels per day in the week ended Friday.

At 1643 IST, the most-active August contract of West Texas Intermediate crude oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange was 0.5% higher at $66.71 per barrel.

US crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day in the week ended Friday, rising 366,000 barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports have averaged around 6.3 million barrels a day, 6.3% lower than the corresponding period last year.

Of the top 10 countries that export crude oil to the US, imports from five countries fell during the week. Imports from Canada fell the most, by 427,000 barrels per day to 3.3 million barrels per day. Imports from Ecuador declined by 225,000 barrels per day to 216,000 barrels per day.

On other hand, crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia rose the most by 375,000 barrels per day to 523,000 barrels per day, and imports from Colombia rose by 229,000 barrels per day to 354,000 barrels per day, the report said.

For the week ended Friday, crude oil exports by the US rose by 761,000 barrels per day to 3.5 million barrels per day. Strategic petroleum reserves fell by 300,000 barrels to 402.7 million barrels during the week.

Inventories of crude oil at Cushing in Oklahoma, a key delivery point for West Texas Intermediate crude, rose by 200,000 barrels to 21.4 million barrels in the week ended Friday. Cushing is the designated delivery point for NYMEX crude oil futures contracts. Market participants closely monitor stockpiles at Cushing, as it has a storage capacity of about 90 million barrels.

End

US$1 = INR 86.07

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

Reported by Ashutosh Pati

Edited by Subhojit Sarkar

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