The American Petroleum Institute (API) estimated that crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 4.6 million barrels for the week ending March 21. Analysts had expected a dip of 2.5 million barrels.

So far this year, crude oil inventories have climbed more than 16 million barrels, according to Oilprice calculations of API data.

Earlier this week, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) climbed 0.2 million barrels again to 396.1 million barrels in the week ending March 21. Inventory levels in the SPR are hundreds of millions shy of the levels in inventory prior to the SPR withdrawal that took place under the Biden Administration.  

At 4:12 pm ET, Brent crude was trading up $0.15 (+0.21%) on the day at $73.15—a nearly $2.50 per barrel gain from this time last week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was trading up on the day as well, by $0.06 (+0.09%) at $69.17—a $1.60 per barrel increase from last week’s level.  

Gasoline inventories fell in the week ending March 21, by 3.3 million barrels, after falling by 1.708 million barrels in the week prior. As of last week, gasoline inventories are now 2% above the five-year average for this time of year, according to the latest EIA data.

Distillate inventories also fell this week, shedding 1.3 million barrels in the latest week. In the week prior, distillate inventories slipped 2.146 million barrels. Distillate inventories were already about 6% below the five-year average as of the week ending March 14, the latest EIA data shows.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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