US Total Crude Oil Stocks Fall Further in Week Ended Oct. 16

10:43 AM EDT, 10/21/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, declined by 3.4 million barrels in the week ended Oct. 16 following a decrease of 8.6 million barrels in the previous week. Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels after an 8.6-million-barrel decrease in the previous week, a larger decline than the 340,000-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Stocks in the SPR fell by 300,000 in the week after holding steady in the previous week. Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.5% from the previous week and were 16.4% lower than a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 3% below the five-year average for this time of the year. Gasoline stocks fell by 3.0 million barrels, a larger decline than the 310,000-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were 1.4% lower the previous week, and down 5.2% from a year earlier. Distillate stocks rose by 1.7 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 1.2 million barrels. Distillate stocks were up 1.6% from the previous week but were still 9.7% lower than in the same week a year ago. Refineries operated at 93.4% of their capacity, down from 93.5% in the previous week.