US crude stockpiles surge on lower exports, products draw down, EIA says

By Liz Hampton and Georgina McCartney

DENVER/HOUSTON, July 30 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories rose sharply last week amid a decline in exports, while gasoline and distillate stockpiles fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories rose by 7.7 million barrels in the week ending July 25 to 426.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel draw.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. crude futures USOICC=ECI rose by 690,000 barrels, the EIA said.

Crude futures edged lower following the surprise and large build, but then recovered. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $73.08 a barrel, up 57 cents by 11:06 a.m. EDT (1509 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude (WTI) futures CLc1 were up 55 cents at $69.76 a barrel.

Crude exports declined by 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) last week to 2.7 million bpd, according to the EIA, as the spread between Brent and WTI narrowed around the times those trades would have been done.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI rose by 1.3 million bpd, the EIA said.

"My take is that the report was bearish, with sharply lower U.S. crude exports – probably due to the smaller WTI discount versus Brent – resulting in a large inventory build," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

"But currently Trump threats versus Russia seem to have a bigger impact on prices at present," he added, referencing U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to impose sanctions on Russia unless it makes progress on ending its war with Ukraine.

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 25,000 bpd, while utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 0.1 percentage point in the week to 95.4% of capacity. Gulf Coast refining activity was at its highest level since July 2024.

Last week's refinery data was corrected by the EIA , which said the utilization rate reported for the Rocky Mountain region in recent weeks was inaccurate. The error was based on capacity data in the April Petroleum Supply Monthly report, which ran at the end of June. The EIA is working to correct the issue in its next PSM report, due July 31, an EIA spokesperson said last week.

Gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 2.7 million barrels in the week to 228.4 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 600,000-barrel draw.​

Product supplied of gasoline, a proxy for demand rose last week to 9.2 million bpd, up from just under 9 million bpd the previous week.

Distillate demand also jumped on the week, gaining 262,000 bpd on the week to reach 3.61 million bpd, while jet fuel demand was at its highest level since December 2017.

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI rose by 3.6 million barrels in the week to 113.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 300,000-barrel rise, the data showed.