U.S. commercial crude oil inventories have fallen to near‑critical levels. At the Cushing, Oklahoma hub—the nation’s largest commercial oil storage site and the WTI pricing point—stockpiles dropped by 1.6 million barrels last week to 20 million barrels, the lowest since 2014. This marks the eighth consecutive week of declines, totaling a 8.3 million‑barrel reduction, leaving Cushing with less than two days of U.S. production in reserve and approaching the minimum level needed for efficient pumping.
When inventories dip below roughly 20 million barrels, extraction becomes technically more difficult and costly, and oil quality may degrade due to water and sediment. Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has shrunk to about 340 million barrels, the lowest level since 1983, after 172 million barrels were released to curb fuel price spikes caused by the war.