Commercial crude inventories excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve have fallen by more than 54 million barrels over the past 30 weeks and by 3 million barrels so far this year, API data show. Draws from the SPR have helped support commercial supplies. During the week ending November 6, the reserve released 2.7 million barrels, leaving 279.5 million barrels in storage—434 million barrels below its maximum capacity. The generally accepted operational minimum is 250 million to 300 million barrels, below which the reserve may have difficulty pumping and processing oil efficiently.

US production reached a record 14.003 million barrels per day in the week ending October 30, up from 13.992 million bpd the week before and 352,000 bpd higher than a year earlier.

Gasoline inventories increased by 4 million barrels, compared with a 1.427 million-barrel rise in the prior week. The latest EIA data put gasoline stocks 2% below the five-year average for this time of year. Distillate inventories climbed by 1.5 million barrels after falling by 270,000 barrels the previous week; they were 13% below the five-year average entering the reporting period, according to EIA data. Stocks at Cushing, the delivery hub for WTI futures, rose by 182,000 barrels after a 511,000-barrel gain a week earlier.

At 4:24 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Brent was down 0.66%, or $0.61, at $91.96 per barrel and more than $12 below its level at the same time a week earlier. WTI fell $0.48, or 0.55%, to $86.37, down roughly $11 over the same period.