The US crude oil stockpiles, including at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub, surprisingly fell last week. Since fuel demand in the US choked off by the coronavirus pandemic, this is the first time supply has dropped.
Crude inventories, according to the US EIA, fell 745,000 barrels last week to May 8 to 531.5 million barrels. After 15 weeks of builds, that was the first decline.
With builds accelerating in March as the coronavirus pandemic took hold and during a brief price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia, US crude stockpiles have risen by more than 100 million barrels since mid-January. The drawdown this week was in part because US production slumped and imports plunged to a record low at less than 2 million bpd.
Crude oil production dropped 300,000 bpd to its lowest since December 2018 at 11.6 million bpd. Though over the past four weeks still remains 23 percent below the year-ago average, fuel demand in the most recent week rebounded.
