Crude Inventories Rise By 7.7 Million Barrels, Exceeding Analyst Estimates

On July 30, 2025, EIA released its Weekly Petroleum Status Report. The report indicated that crude inventories increased by +7.7 million barrels from the previous week, compared to analyst consensus of -2 million barrels. At current levels, crude inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

Total motor gasoline inventories decreased by -2.7 million barrels, compared to analyst forecast of -0.5 million barrels. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.6 million barrels from the previous week.

U.S. crude oil imports increased by 159,000 bpd, averaging 6.1 million bpd. Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.1 million bpd.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased from 402.5 million barrels to 402.7 million barrels. It should be noted that Strategic Petroleum Reserve remained mostly unchanged in recent weeks.

Domestic oil production increased from 13.273 million bpd to 13.314 million bpd. It remains to be seen whether the recent rebound in the oil markets will provide significant support to domestic oil production.

WTI oil  continued its attempts to settle above the $69.50 level after the release of the EIA report. Potential sanctions on Russia have served as the key bullish catalyst in recent days.

Brent oil  tested the $72.80 level as traders reacted to the EIA report.

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