By Anthony Harrup
U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week as refineries ran at a slower rate, and product stocks grew amid a decline in demand, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 3.6 million barrels to 426 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 16 and were about 2% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Crude stocks were expected to have fallen by 500,000 barrels, according to a Wall Street Journal survey of analysts.
Oil stored in the SPR rose by 806,000 barrels to 414.5 million barrels. Oil stocks at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, were up by 1.5 million barrels at 25.1 million barrels.
The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.7 million barrels a day, down by 21,000 barrels a day from the week before. Imports of crude oil fell by 645,000 barrels a day to 6.4 million barrels a day, and exports were down by 618,000 barrels a day at 3.7 million barrels a day.
Refinery capacity use fell to 93.3% from 95.3% the previous week, with crude input to refineries down by 354,000 barrels a day at 16.6 million barrels a day. Refinery runs were forecast to have fallen by 0.7 of a percentage point in the Journal survey.
Gasoline inventories extended their build to 10 weeks, rising by 6 million barrels to 257 million barrels, and were 5% above the five-year average. Gasoline demand averaged 7.8 million barrels a day, 470,000 barrels a day less than the previous week. Gasoline stocks were expected to have risen by 1 million barrels.
Distillate fuel stocks rose by 3.3 million barrels to 132.6 million barrels and were about 1% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Demand for distillate fuel fell by 571,000 barrels a day to 3.5 million barrels a day. Distillate inventories were forecast to have fallen by a half million barrels.
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 16:
Crude Gasoline Distillates Refinery Use
EIA data: 3.6 6.0 3.3 -2.0
Forecast: -0.5 1.0 -0.5 -0.7
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
January 22, 2026 12:38 ET (17:38 GMT)
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