EIA: US Crude Stocks Fall 1.9 Million Barrels to 410.6 Million

The Energy Information Administration said in its Weekly Petroleum Status Report on Oct. 28 that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories "decreased 1.9 million barrels to 410.6 million barrels, 4% below the five-year average." The figures cover the week ending Oct. 23, and the full text sits in the EIA's weekly report.

Gasoline inventories increased 3.9 million barrels and are 2% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Distillate inventories fell 1.5 million barrels, leaving them 10% below that average. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 0.1 million barrels and sit 12% above it. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 3.0 million barrels for the week.

Refinery runs slipped. U.S. refineries processed 16.5 million barrels per day, down 123,000 b/d from the previous week, at 92.8% capacity utilization, according to the release. Gasoline output averaged 9.2 million b/d, and distillate production decreased to 5.2 million b/d.

Crude oil imports increased 616,000 b/d to 6.4 million b/d. The EIA put the four-week average at 6.3 million b/d, 9.3% above the year-ago level. Gasoline imports averaged 399,000 b/d, and distillate imports averaged 157,000 b/d.

On demand, the EIA said total product supplied averaged 20.8 million b/d over four weeks, up 0.2% from a year earlier. The four-week average for gasoline product supplied decreased 0.7% year over year to 8.6 million b/d. Distillate product supplied decreased 0.6% to 4.0 million b/d, and jet fuel product supplied decreased 3.5%.

The Commitments of Traders report, published weekly by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, shows the futures positions held by groups of large traders as of Tuesday, usually released the following Friday. In the report released Oct. 23, managed money held a net long position of 36,187 contracts in NYMEX WTI light sweet crude oil futures as of Oct. 20. The prior week's net long was 40,574 contracts, a drop of 4,387. Open interest stood at 1,835,144 contracts, and the weekly change equaled 0.2% of it. The move was larger than 16% of weekly moves over the past three years.

The 3-year COT index places the latest net position within its range over the past three years, where 0 is the lowest net position in that window and 100 the highest. Managed money's reading was 25. The three-year high was a net long of 253,879 contracts on Jan. 7, 2025, and the low was a net short of 38,154 contracts on Oct. 21, 2025. These positions were held before the EIA release of Oct. 28. More tracked markets are on AlphaScala's COT page, and the WTI positioning page carries the crude detail. Prices and news sit on the crude oil market profile.

WTI crude oil (CL) was at $93.16 as of 12:03 UTC on Oct. 30.