The latest report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed a slight gain in the amount of crude oil in storage at the Cushing hub in Oklahoma.
As of Sept. 16, Cushing held 25 million barrels of crude oil. In the previous week as of Sept. 9, the hub held 24.6 million barrels, a difference of 0.4 million barrels.
The EIA compared the 25 million barrels to what was in storage in Cushing a year ago when it held 33.8 million barrels. The amount in storage this year is down more than 26%.
Two years ago, the Cushing hub held 54.3 million barrels and the difference from the most recent report is a decline of 54%.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 0.2 million barrels from the previous week. At 430.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil
inventories are about 2% below the five year average for this time of year.
The EIA’s weekly petroleum report indicated that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day during the week ending September 23, 2022 which was 604,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average.
Refineries operated at 90.6% of their operable capacity last week. Gasoline production increased last week, averaging 9.6 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production decreased last week,
averaging 5.0 million barrels per day.
U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, decreased by 0.5 million barrels per day from the previous week. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged
about 6.5 million barrels per day, 5.6% more than the same four-week period last year. Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last
week averaged 525,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 94,000 barrels per day.
Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 2.4 million barrels from last week and are about 6% below the five year average for this time of year. Finished gasoline inventories increased, but blending components inventories decreased last week. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels last week and are about 20% below the five year average for this time of year.