Crude stocks at the Cushing Hub in Oklahoma and across the U.S. recorded gains in the most recent reporting period, reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
The gains came as a Japanese refiner permanently closed a 120,000-barrels-a-day refinery in western Japan while another company announced plans to shut down a similar-sized refinery in March 2024. It represents 7% of Japan’s refinery capacity.
The storage of crude oil at Cushing increased 1.8 million barrels as it went from 25.9 millon barrels as of Nov. 17 to 27.7 million barrels on Nov. 24, the most recent reporting period. Cushing’s total crude stocks went up 6.7 million barrels since the middle of October.
Nationally, crude stocks saw an increase of 1.6 million barrels. The U.S. had 448.1 million barrels as of Nov. 17 but the amount in storage grew to 449.7 million barrels as of Nov. 24. In the middle of October, the U.S. had 419.7 million barrels in storage which amounts to a 30-million barrel gain.