United States commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), decreased by 7.9 million barrels from the week ending May 8 to the week ending May 15.
That’s according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA’s) latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on May 20 and included data for the week ending May 15.
According to this report, crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, stood at 445.0 million barrels on May 15, 452.9 million barrels on May 8, and 443.2 million barrels on May 16, 2025.
Crude oil in the SPR stood at 374.2 million barrels on May 15, 384.1 million barrels on May 8, and 400.5 million barrels on May 15, 2025, the report revealed. In a statement posted on its website on May 11, the U.S.
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced contract awards for the exchange of approximately 53.3 million barrels of crude from the SPR’s Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, Big Hill, and West Hackberry sites.
“Today’s announcement marks the next phase of DOE’s execution of the United States’ 172 million barrel contribution to the International Energy Agency’s collective action to stabilize global oil supplies,” this statement noted.
“This action builds on earlier exchange actions, which have already awarded approximately 80 million barrels from the Bayou Choctaw, Bryan Mound, and West Hackberry sites,” it added.
Total petroleum stocks – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/ propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.601 billion barrels on May 15, according to the EIA’s latest weekly petroleum status report.
Total petroleum stocks were down 18.9 million barrels week on week and down 22.2 million barrels year on year, the report pointed out.
The report showed that total crude oil stocks stood at 819.2 million barrels, as of May 15. This represented a weekly drop of 17.8 million barrels and a yearly drop of 24.5 million barrels, the EIA report outlined.
“At 445.0 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about two percent below the five-year average for this time of year,” the EIA said in its latest weekly petroleum status report.
“Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by 1.5 million barrels from last week and are five percent below the five-year average for this time of year. Both finished gasoline and blending component inventories decreased last week.
