Strong Gasoline Draw Supports Oil Prices

Crude oil inventories in the United States fell by 2.668 million barrels for week ending October 20, according to The American Petroleum Institute (API), after a 4.383-million-barrel dip in crude inventories in the week prior, API data showed.

Analysts were expecting a build of 1.550 million barrels for the week. API data shows a net draw in crude oil inventories in the United States of 2.679 million barrels so far this year.

On Monday, the Department of Energy (DoE) reported that crude oil inventories in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stayed the same for the third week in a row, with the SPR inventory still sitting at a near 40-year low of 351.3 million barrels, with total purchases for the SPR coming in at less than 4 million barrels since the Biden Administration began its buyback program.

Oil prices were trading down ahead of API data release, with Brent trading down 1.97% at $88.06 at 3:46 p.m. ET-a roughly $2.50 decrease week over week. The U.S. benchmark WTI was trading down on the day at 2.04%, at $83.75. WTI is down nearly $3.50 per barrel from this same time last week.

Gasoline inventories fell this week by 4.169 million barrels, on top of the 1.578 million barrel decrease in the week prior. Gasoline inventories are just above the five-year average for this time of year, last week's EIA data shows. Distillate inventories also fell this week, by 2.313 million barrels, on top of the 612,000-barrel draw in the week prior, and are now about 12% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Cushing inventories saw the only build this week, of 513,000 barrels, after falling by 1.005 million barrels last week, leaving an estimated 21.5 million barrels in stock.

By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com

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