EIA: U.S. commercial crude inventories fell by 2.2 million last week

According to foreign media reports, statistics released by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) on the 9th showed that US commercial crude oil inventories (excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) fell sharply by 2.2 million barrels in the week ending on May 4.

In its weekly Oil Status Report, the EIA noted that U.S. commercial crude inventories are estimated at 433.8 million barrels, less than half the average crude oil inventory level for this time of year.

The EIA also said in the report that total U.S. motor gasoline inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels last week, in the upper half of the average range. Both commodity gasoline inventories and blended-component gasoline inventories declined last week.

U.S. refiners processed an average of 16.5 million barrels per day last week, down 75,000 barrels a month on a day. U.S. refinery capacity utilization was 90.4% last week.

The U.S. averaged 7.3 million barrels per day last week, down 1.2 million barrels a month on a month-on-day basis. Over the past four weeks, the U.S. has averaged 8.1 million barrels per day of crude oil, down about 1% year-on-year.