U.S. crude inventories fall 3.1 million barrels as production and imports decline

Key Facts

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell 3.1 million barrels in the week ended October 16, 2026, as domestic production and crude imports declined. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its report released on October 21 that crude stocks, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, stood at 412.5 million barrels. Inventories had totaled 415.6 million barrels the previous week, according to the agency's weekly tables. The draw extended to total commercial petroleum inventories, which fell by 8.5 million barrels during the reporting week. In the gasoline market, inventories declined 3.0 million barrels to 205.3 million, compared with 208.3 million barrels the previous week.

The crude inventory draw was concentrated on the U.S. Gulf Coast, according to the regional breakdown published by the EIA in its weekly report. Stocks in the region stood at 229.3 million barrels, compared with 234.4 million barrels the previous week, a rounded weekly draw of 5.0 million barrels. In contrast, inventories at Cushing rose to 27.6 million barrels from 26.6 million, a rounded weekly increase of 1.0 million barrels. In government stocks, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve declined to 282.7 million barrels, compared with 283.0 million barrels a week earlier. The weekly draw from the reserve was 0.3 million barrels, with the agency accounting for those stocks separately from commercial crude inventories.

On the domestic supply side, U.S. crude production fell by 410 thousand barrels per day, according to EIA estimates for the same week. Output stood at 13,269 thousand barrels per day, compared with 13,679 thousand barrels per day the previous week. Alongside the production decline, crude volumes entering U.S. refineries increased by 34 thousand barrels per day during the reporting week. Refinery crude inputs reached 16,649 thousand barrels per day, compared with 16,615 thousand barrels per day a week earlier, according to the refinery activity table. Refineries operated at 93.4% of available capacity, compared with 93.5% the previous week.

In foreign trade, U.S. commercial crude imports fell to 5,758 thousand barrels per day, according to the EIA's imports and exports table. Imports had totaled 6,049 thousand barrels per day the previous week, marking a weekly decline of 291 thousand barrels per day. Crude exports posted a larger decline, falling by 1,128 thousand barrels per day over the same period. Exports stood at 3,442 thousand barrels per day, compared with 4,570 thousand barrels per day the previous week. With exports falling faster than imports, net crude imports, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose to 2,316 thousand barrels per day from 1,479 thousand, an increase of 837 thousand barrels per day.

In refined products, distillate inventories rose to 104.3 million barrels, compared with 102.6 million barrels the previous week, an increase of 1.7 million barrels. However, the increase left stocks 9% below the five-year average, according to the EIA's weekly summary. The inventory increase coincided with a rise in distillate production to 5,232 thousand barrels per day from 5,189 thousand, an increase of 43 thousand barrels per day. Total petroleum products supplied averaged 21.1 million barrels per day over the past four weeks. That average was up 3.2% from the same period a year earlier, according to the year-on-year comparison in the agency's summary.

The U.S. inventory developments come as the EIA links higher oil tanker freight rates to rising insurance costs in its October energy outlook. The agency said higher freight rates were putting additional upward pressure on the cost of crude delivered to refineries. On the diplomatic front, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari confirmed that negotiations between Washington and Tehran were continuing, according to Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. Commenting on the limited public information about the talks, Al-Ansari said: "Not hearing about them is a good sign that we are doing our job properly." The regular release time for the weekly inventory report remains Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time, according to the EIA's schedule.