By Anthony Harrup

The U.S. saw a large drop in crude oil inventories last week as exports almost doubled from the week before and imports fell, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 9.3 million barrels to 415.4 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 12 and were about 5% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Crude stocks were expected to be unchanged, according to the average estimate of analysts in a Wall Street Journal survey.

Oil stored in the SPR rose by 504,000 barrels to 405.7 million barrels. Oil stocks at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, were down by 296,000 barrels at 23.6 million barrels.

The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production near 13.5 million barrels a day, little changed from the previous week. Crude oil imports fell by 579,000 barrels a day to 5.7 million barrels a day, while exports increased by 2.5 million barrels a day to 5.3 million barrels a day.

Refinery capacity use dropped to 93.3% from 94.9% the week before, with crude input to refineries down by 394,000 barrels a day at 16.4 million barrels a day. Refinery runs were forecast to have fallen by half of a percentage point in the Journal survey.

Gasoline inventories fell by 2.3 million barrels to 217.6 million barrels, and were 1% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline demand rose by 302,000 barrels a day to 8.8 million barrels a day. Gasoline stocks were expected to be unchanged.

Distillate fuel stocks jumped by 4 million barrels to 124.7 million barrels against expectations of a 500,000 barrel increase, and were 8% below the five-year average for the time of year.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Sept. 12: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:          -9.3          -2.3            4.0                 -1.6 
Forecast:          unch          unch            0.5                 -0.5 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 17, 2025 10:54 ET (14:54 GMT)

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