The American Petroleum Institute (API) predicted the crude oil inventory draw to be 815,000 barrels this week. Since the beginning of the year, U.S. crude inventories have dropped by 61 million barrels, and while this is typically the season for stockpiling petroleum, no such increases have been made consistently.
In the run-up to the data release, oil prices were down more than 1% as Omicron worries hung over the industry, and a recent IEA research predicted that under Omicron, supplies would rebound while demand would falter—a mix that may lead to higher stockpiles.
While there haven’t been any persistent increases in crude oil inventories in the United States, oil output has steadily increased. Crude oil output in the United States increased 100,000 barrels per day for the third week in a row, to 11.7 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The API recorded a 426,000-barrel increase in gasoline stocks for the week ending December 10—following a 3.705-million-barrel increase the week before. Following a 1.228-million-barrel gain last week, distillate stockpiles decreased by 1.016 million barrels this week. This week, Cushing experienced a 2.275-million-barrel spike.
Before the pandemic, production peaked at 13.1 million bpd in the United States.