US commercial crude oil stocks continue to decline

Oil

US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 7.4M bbls w-o-w to 518.6M bbls during the week ending July 31, falling for the second consecutive week, to the lowest level since the week ending April 10, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Despite the decline, this is an increase of 79.7M bbls y-o-y, with stocks around 16% above the five-year average for this time of year. Motor gasoline inventories grew by 400K bbls w-o-w and 12.6M bbls y-o-y to 247.8M bbls. Crude oil imports rose by 860K b/d w-o-w to an average of 6M b/d, with exports declining by 390K b/d w-o-w to 2.8M b/d. Crude oil throughput edged up by 40K b/d w-o-w to 14.6M b/d, which is 3.1M b/d (or 18%) lower than the same week last year.