By Anthony Harrup

U.S. crude oil inventories fell last week as a decline in production amid winter storm Fern partially offset a rise in imports, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 3.5 million barrels to 420.3 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 30 and were about 4% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Crude stocks were seen unchanged in a Wall Street Journal survey of analysts.

Oil stored in the SPR increased by 214,000 barrels to 415.2 million barrels. Oil stocks at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, were down by 743,000 barrels at 24 million barrels.

The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.2 million barrels a day, down by 481,000 barrels a day from the previous week, reflecting production freeze-offs. Crude oil imports rose by 558,000 barrels a day to 6.2 million barrels a day, while exports fell by 542,000 barrels a day to 4 million barrels a day.

Refineries ran at 90.5% of capacity, down from 90.9% the week before, with crude input to refineries down by 180,000 barrels a day at 16 million barrels a day. Refinery runs were forecast to have fallen by 1 percentage point in the Journal survey.

Gasoline inventories were up by 685,000 barrels at 257.9 million barrels, or 4% above the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline demand fell by 604,000 barrels a day to 8.2 million barrels a day. Gasoline stocks were expected to have risen by 1.3 million barrels.

Distillate fuel stocks dropped by 5.6 million barrels to 127.4 million barrels against expectations of a 2.4 million barrel draw, and were about 2% below the five-year average.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 30: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates        Refinery Use 
EIA data:          -3.5           0.7           -5.6                -0.4 
Forecast:          unch           1.3           -2.4                -1.0 
 

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

February 04, 2026 10:58 ET (15:58 GMT)

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