Bóvedas de petróleo

The number that matters this week is 8.0 million. That is exactly how many barrels were pulled from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, bringing the federal vault down to 357.1 million barrels. Commercial crude vaults did not fare any better, shedding another 8.0 million barrels to land at 433.7 million. Combined, we just watched 16.0 million barrels of crude evaporate from domestic storage in a single week. At the Cushing, Oklahoma pricing hub, the physical reality remains tight. Tanks there drained by 0.6 million barrels, leaving the vault at 22.4 million barrels—exactly 10.9 million barrels below the five-year average. Meanwhile, the refined product side showed a different dynamic. Gasoline inventories built by 3.4 million barrels to 215.0 million, and distillates added 1.5 million barrels. For traders, this massive crude draw signals an aggressively undersupplied physical market, but the simultaneous build in gasoline suggests refiners are churning out product faster than the consumer can burn it.