U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell by 3.2 million barrels in the week ending October 2, according to the EIA. Analysts quoted by Rigzone had looked for a build, and refinery runs and crude imports both rose over the week.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), dropped by 3.2 million barrels from the week ending September 25 to the week ending October 2. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported the data in its weekly petroleum status report on October 7.
Crude stocks fall to 424.134 million barrels
Commercial crude stocks came in at 424.134 million barrels on October 2, against 427.320 million barrels on September 25 and 420.261 million barrels on October 3, 2025. That marks a 0.7% decline week on week and a 0.9% rise year on year.
The SPR stood at 283.0 million barrels on October 2, down 0.3% week on week and 30.5% year on year. Total petroleum stocks were down 7.7 million barrels week on week to 1.520 billion barrels.
Refinery runs and imports climb
Refineries processed 16.5 million barrels per day, up 223,000 barrels per day from the previous week, at 92.7% capacity utilization, the EIA said. Crude oil imports increased 1.1 million barrels per day to 6.8 million barrels per day.
Gasoline inventories, by contrast, increased 0.4 million barrels, while distillate inventories remained unchanged, the EIA noted. Ole Hansen, Head of Commodity Strategy at Saxo Bank, said total U.S. crude and fuel exports climbed to 12.8 million barrels per day, the highest since May.
The draw defied forecasts of a build
Naaem Aslam, CIO at Zaye Capital Markets, said inventories fell by 3.2 million barrels when markets had expected a 1.9 million barrel increase. Aslam called it a surprise: "That is an important surprise because falling inventories signal tighter domestic supply than expected".
Macquarie strategists had forecast a 2.6 million barrel increase in U.S. crude inventories for the week.
Source: Rigzone
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