U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), increased by 5.8 million barrels from the week ending March 29 to the week ending April 5, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest weekly petroleum status report. The country’s crude oil stocks stood at 457.3 million barrels on April 5, 451.4 million barrels on March 29, and 470.5 million barrels on April 7, 2023, the report, which highlighted that data may not add up to totals due to independent rounding, showed. Crude oil in the SPR stood at 364.2 million barrels on April 5, 363.6 million barrels on March 29, and 369.6 million barrels on April 7, 2023, the report revealed. Total petroleum stocks in the U.S. – including crude oil, total motor gasoline, fuel ethanol, kerosene type jet fuel, distillate fuel oil, residual fuel oil, propane/propylene, and other oils – stood at 1.591 billion barrels on April 5, the report highlighted. This figure was up 13.0 million barrels week on week and down 12.5 million barrels year on year, according to the report. “At 457.3 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are about two percent below the five year average for this time of year,” the EIA noted in its report. “Total motor gasoline inventories increased by 0.7 million barrels from last week and are about three percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it added.“Both finished gasoline and blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels last week and are about five percent below the five year average for this time of year,” it continued. “Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 0.1 million barrels from last week and are nine percent above the five year average for this time of year,” it went on to state. In its report, the EIA highlighted that U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day during the week ending April 5. The organization pointed out that this was 115,000 barrels per day less than the previous week’s average. “Refineries operated at 88.3 percent of their operable capacity last week,” the EIA said in the report. “Gasoline production decreased last week, averaging 9.4 million barrels per day. Distillate fuel production increased last week, averaging 4.6 million barrels per day,” it added. U.S. crude oil imports averaged 6.4 million barrels per day last week, the EIA noted in the report, highlighting that this was a reduction of 183,000 barrels per day from the previous week. “Over the past four weeks, crude oil imports averaged about 6.5 million barrels per day, 4.8 percent more than the same four-week period last year,” the EIA stated in the report. “Total motor gasoline imports (including both finished gasoline and gasoline blending components) last week averaged 730,000 barrels per day, and distillate fuel imports averaged 163,000 barrels per day,” it added. The EIA revealed in the report that total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.0 million barrels a day. It outlined that this was down by 0.4 percent from the same period last year. “Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million barrels a day, down by 2.7 percent from the same period last year,” the EIA said in the report. “Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 8.9 percent from the same period last year,” it added. “Jet fuel product supplied was up 3.5 percent compared with the same four-week period last year,” it continued.