US Total Crude Oil Stocks Fall in Week Ended Aug. 21

10:42 AM EDT, 08/26/2026 (MT Newswires) -- US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 3.6 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 21 following a decrease of 900,000 barrels in the previous week. Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks increased by 100,000 barrels after a 4.4-million-barrel increase in the previous week, a smaller increase than the 1.6-million-barrel increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg. Stocks in the SPR fell by 3.7 million in the week after falling by 5.3 million in the previous week. Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.5% from the previous week and were down 12.6% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 1% above the five-year average for this time of the year. Gasoline stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels, a larger decline than the 1.1-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 1.2% from the previous week and were 7.0% lower than a year earlier. Distillate stocks fell by 2.2 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 1.9 million barrels. Distillate stocks were down 2.1% from the previous week and were 9.5% lower than in the same week a year ago. Refineries operated at 97.4% of their capacity, up from 97.2% in the previous week.