This was highlighted by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) in its latest weekly petroleum status report, which was released on September 23 and included data for the week ending September 18. Commercial crude oil stocks, not including the SPR, came in at 426.39 million barrels on September 18, 423.42 million barrels on September 11, and 414.75 million barrels on September 19, 2025, the report revealed. Crude oil stocks rose by 0.7 percent week on week and by 2.8 percent year on year, the report outlined. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 284.6 million barrels on September 18, 285.0 million barrels on September 11, and 406.0 million barrels on September 19, 2025, the report outlined.
The September 18 figure represented a 0.1 percent week on week decrease and a 29.9 percent year on year decrease, the report highlighted. 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 1.535 billion barrels on September 18, the report showed. Total petroleum stocks were down 0.3 million barrels week on week and down 152.0 million barrels year on year, the report revealed. “Commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, increased 3.0 million barrels to 426.4 million barrels, two percent above the five-year average,” the EIA noted in its latest weekly petroleum status report. “Gasoline inventories decreased 1.7 million barrels, six percent below the five-year average.
Distillate inventories decreased 0.4 million barrels, 12 percent below the five-year average,” it added. For the week ending September 18, U.S. refineries processed 16.8 million barrels per day, according to the report, which outlined that this was down 519,000 barrels per day from the previous week, “at 94.0 percent capacity utilization”. “Gasoline output averaged 9.6 million barrels per day, and distillate production decreased to 5.2 million barrels per day,” the report revealed. Crude oil imports decreased 1.2 million barrels per day to 5.9 million barrels per day, the report noted.
It pointed out, however, that “the four-week average of 6.6 million barrels per day is 5.3 percent above the year-ago level.” “Gasoline imports averaged 401,000 barrels per day; distillate imports averaged 85,000 barrels per day,” the EIA highlighted. P r o p a n e / p r o p y l e n e inventories decreased 1.2 million barrels, according to the report, which noted that this was 20 percent above the five-year average. Over the past four weeks, total product supplied averaged 20.6 million barrels per day, the report stated, outlining that this was up 0.5 percent year over year. “The four-week average for gasoline product supplied decreased 0.8 percent year over year to 8.8 million barrels per day, while the four-week average for distillate product supplied increased 0.3 percent to 3.6 million barrels per day. “The four-week average for jet fuel product supplied increased 6.2 percent year over year,” the EIA said.
In a market analysis sent to Rigzone on Thursday, Naeem Aslam, CIO at Zaye Capital Markets, noted that US crude inventories rose by 3.0 million barrels to 426.4 million, “compared with expectations for a 641,000 barrel decline.” “Cushing stocks increased by 2.2 million barrels to 23.7 million, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels to 206 million and distillates dropped by 428,000 barrels to 107.4 million. “That mixed inventory picture explains why oil remains highly sensitive to both macro and physical market signals,” Aslam added.
In a report sent to Rigzone late Monday by the Macquarie team, Macquarie strategists, including Walt Chancellor, revealed that they were forecasting that US crude inventories would be down by 3.2 million barrels for the week ending September 18. “This follows a 0.6 million barrel draw for the week ending September 11, with last week’s crude balance yet again realizing tighter than our expectations,” the strategists said in that report. “For this week’s crude balance, we look for a meaningful reduction in crude runs (-0.5 million barrels per day). “Among net imports, we also model a significant reduction, with exports down slightly (-0.1 million barrels per day) and imports sharply lower (-0.7 million barrels per day) on a nominal basis,” the strategists projected in this report. The Macquarie strategists warned in the report that the timing of cargoes remained a source of potential volatility in the weekly crude balance. “From implied domestic supply (prod. +adj.+transfers), we look for a reduction (-0.3 million barrels per day) following a strong nominal print last week.
