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US Total Crude Oil Stocks Fell in Week Ended May 8

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US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 12.9 million barrels in the week ended May 8 following a decrease of 7.5 million barrels in the previous week.

Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks decreased by 4.3 million barrels after a 2.3-million-barrel decline in the previous week, more than the 2.0-million-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.

Stocks in the SPR fell by 8.6 million in the week after falling by 5.2 million in the previous week.

Overall crude oil stocks were down 1.5% from the previous week and down 0.5% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 0.3% below the five-year average for this time of the year.

Gasoline stocks declined by 4.1 million barrels, a larger drop than the 3.0-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 1.9% from the previous week and down 4.0% from a year earlier.

Distillate stocks rose by 200,000 barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 2.7 million barrels. Distillate stocks were up 0.2% from the previous week but were 1% lower than in the same week a year ago.

Refineries operated at 91.7% of their capacity, up from 90.1% in the previous week.

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