EIA Data Shows U.S. Crude Inventories Fall 4.5 Million Barrels as Demand Slumps

Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States dropped by 4.5 million barrels for the week ending August 28, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The drawdown brings total commercial stockpiles to 424.5 million barrels, a level that sits approximately 1% above the five-year seasonal average.

The EIA figures followed data from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which had reported a smaller decline of 2.6 million barrels for the same period one day earlier.

Crude futures were under pressure during Wednesday morning trading in New York, with Brent crude slipping $0.64, or 0.68%, to $94.01 per barrel.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) also declined, falling $0.98 per barrel, or 1.09%, to trade at $89.24 during the same session.

Despite the intraday losses, both benchmarks remained significantly higher on a weekly basis, with Brent up roughly $7 per barrel and WTI up approximately $8 compared to the same time the prior week.

Total products supplied, which serves as a widely used proxy for U.S. oil demand, averaged 20.4 million barrels per day over the most recent four-week period, a decline of 4% year over year.

Gasoline demand averaged 8.9 million barrels per day over the same four-week window, while distillate demand averaged 3.7 million barrels per day, falling 6% compared to the prior year.

Gasoline inventories bucked the broader crude trend, rising by 300,000 barrels for the week ending August 28, reversing the previous week’s decline of 3.2 million barrels.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) continued to be drawn upon, with another 3.1 million barrels released during the week, bringing total SPR holdings to 286.6 million barrels, a figure that is 445 million barrels below maximum capacity.

Commercial crude inventories excluding the SPR have shed just over 48 million barrels across the last twenty weeks, with API data showing U.S. crude inventories up 3.1 million barrels for the year.

U.S. crude production for the week ending August 21 rose to 13.843 million barrels per day, up from 13.830 million the prior week and 461,000 barrels per day higher than the same point a year earlier.