U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report released by the Energy Information Administration, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) increased by 1.6 million barrels from the previous week. At 535.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.

Key highlights

• U.S. crude oil imports averaged about 7.9 million barrels per day last week, down by 374,000 barrels per day from the previous week.
• U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged over 16.4 million barrels per day during the week ending March 31, 2017, 203,000 barrels per day more than the previous week’s average. Refineries operated at 90.8% of their operable capacity last week.