The EIA (Energy Information Administration), the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, released its weekly petroleum status report on 29 July covering the week to 24 July. US commercial crude stocks fell 7.2 million barrels to 404.5 million, about 7% below the five-year average, with refinery utilisation at 97.2% on crude runs of 17.3m b/d 1. That reverses the single-week build this desk flagged as a first in its tracking window .
Distillate stocks rose 1.1 million barrels to 110.6 million, still roughly 10% below the same five-year benchmark 2. Across five prints since June the deficit has run 13%, 8%, 11%, 10% and 10% , a saw-tooth that holds the US middle-distillate barrel about a tenth short of normal without trending in either direction. Distillate covers diesel, heating oil and jet fuel, the products a European refiner makes money on.
The flat price moved the other way inside the same window. The report puts WTI at Cushing at $91.74/bbl on 24 July, up $8.31 on the week 3; by 27 July it had surrendered almost all of that, to about $83.51, as reports of a pause in strikes spread and pulled the global benchmark off its highs . Cushing, Oklahoma is the delivery point where the WTI contract settles, and its spot quote is the cleanest read on US physical tightness available weekly.
Stocks drew hard while the price completed a round trip in three sessions. Anyone reading the screen alone that week would have concluded the fundamentals had loosened, when the inventory data says the opposite. The war premium unwinds on a headline; a barrel taken out of tankage does not come back until someone puts it there.
