US Crude Oil Inventories Unexpectedly Increase

Commercial crude oil inventories in the United States, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, experienced an unexpected build of 17.4 million barrels for the week ending August 7. This brought the total stockpile to 424.4 million barrels.

Despite the increase, the overall crude oil stocks remained approximately 2% below the five-year average for this time of year, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA).