US Crude Oil Inventories Still in Freefall

The American Petroleum Institute has reported that US crude oil inventories continue to decline significantly. The week ending October 30 saw a drop of 5.267 million barrels compared to 2.031 million barrels the previous week. This downward trend has led to a substantial decrease of over 64 million barrels in commercial crude oil reserves over the past 29 weeks, and a 12 million barrel reduction this year, according to API data.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) contributed to this decline, releasing 400,000 barrels of crude oil to help bolster commercial inventories. As of October 30, the SPR's total inventory stood at 282.2 million barrels, significantly below its operational minimum of 250-300 million barrels. US crude oil production for the week ending October 23 increased to 13.992 million barrels per day (bpd) from 13.269 million bpd the week before, marking a significant rise of 348,000 bpd compared to the previous year.

Brent crude prices fell to $104.32 per barrel on October 30, down $0.43% from the previous day. Similarly, WTI crude prices increased slightly to $97.24 per barrel, up $0.23% from the prior day. Gasoline inventories rose by 1.427 million barrels during the week ending October 30, while distillate inventories decreased by 270,000 barrels compared to the previous week.

Distillate inventories were already 10% below their five-year average before this report. Cushing inventory, which is stored at the delivery hub for the WTI Crude futures contract, saw an increase of 511,000 barrels after a previous week's loss of 453,000 barrels.