Stockpiles of US crude fell by 3.326 million barrels during the week to August 26, after back-to-back declines of 3.282 million and 7.056 million during the weeks to August 19 and August 12, the EIA said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report.
Industry analysts polled by US media had forecast a decline of just around 950,000 barrels for crude in the just-ended week.
Inventories of gasoline, America’s No. 1 fuel product, also fell more than expected last week, sliding by 1.172 million barrels after the previous week’s dip of 27,000. The forecast decline for gasoline was 1 million.
But demand for gasoline was down year-on-year, with just 8.591 million barrels being used up last week versus the year-ago level of 9.578 million. This is despite the week-on-week consumption climb of 144,000 barrels for gasoline.
“In this case, the annual drop is more important,” John Kilduff, partner at New York energy hedge fund Again Capital, said. “It signals gasoline demand may have peaked for this time of year, with the summer season near its end and kids back in school. There’ll just be a whole lot of less driving for families from here.”
Stockpiles of distillates — the oil variant required for making the diesel needed for trucks, buses and trains, as well as the fuel for jets — rose by 0.111 million from a previous decline of 0.661 million. Analysts had expected a decline of 0.75 million barrels.
Exports of crude and drawdown of supply from the national oil reserve — two other key takeaways from the weekly report — were also below recent peaks.
Crude exports were at 3.967 million barrels last week from a previous 4.177 million.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which the Biden administration has been drawing from since November to ease a supply squeeze for crude, saw an outflow of 3.4 million barrels last week, little changed from the prior week’s 3.5 million barrels.