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Written by Sumit Roy  |

December 21, 2011

Crude Oil Report: Inventories See Record Decline, WTI-LLS Spread Nears Low For Year

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Total petroleum inventories plunge by historic amount, while crude oil inventories fall by the most since 2001.

The Department of Energy reported this morning that in the week ending Dec. 16, U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 10.6 million barrels, gasoline inventories decreased by 0.4 million barrels, distillate inventories decreased by 2.4 million barrels, and total petroleum inventories decreased by 18.2 million barrels.

Crude oil prices were up after the report. Brent last trading at $107.77/bbl, while WTI traded at $98.67.

While we go into greater detail in the pages that follow, here are the highlights of United States crude oil balances following the latest figures:

Total petroleum inventories total 1,037,815,000 barrels, a decline of 18.2 million barrels from the previous week. That’s the largest week-over-week decline on record, though there have been numerous occasions where inventories have fallen more than 15 million barrels. The 5-year average decline for the week is 7.9 million, thus the inventory surplus over the 5-year average declined to 6.6 million, or 0.6 percent.