Crude Inventories Drop By 3.3 Million Barrels; WTI Oil Tests The $70.00 Level

On March 26, 2025, EIA released its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The report indicated that crude inventories declined by -3.3 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of -1.6 million barrels. At current levels, crude inventories are about 5% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.4 million barrels, compared to analyst forecast of -1.6 million. Distillate fuel inventories decreased by 0.4 million barrels from the previous week.

U.S. crude oil imports increased by 810,000, averaging 6.2 million bpd. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged 5.7 million bpd.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased from 395.9 million barrels to 396.1 million barells as the U.S. continued to buy oil for strategic reserves. It should be noted that recent purchases were not aggressive.

Domestic oil production increased from 13.573 million bpd to 13.574 million bpd. From a big picture point of view, domestic oil production is stuck below the 13.6 million bpd level. A move above this level will show that domestic producers have started to increase production.

WTI oil settled near the $70.00 level as traders reacted to the EIA report. Falling crude inventories may provide additional support to the market.

Brent oil continued its attempts to settle above the $74.00 level after the release of the EIA report.

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