EIA Data Shows U.S. Gasoline Stocks 11.9 Million Barrels Below August Seasonal Average
U.S. gasoline inventories at 205.7 million barrels sit nearly 12 million below the August seasonal norm, with ARA hub stocks in Europe also at record lows.
U.S. gasoline inventories stood at 205.7 million barrels for the week ending August 28 (2026-08-28), the EIA reported on Friday (2026-09-04), placing stocks 11.9 million barrels below the five-year August average of 217.6 million barrels. RBOB gasoline front-month held at $3.23 per gallon as of 2026-09-09.4,1
The pace of the drawdown has been striking. From a winter high of 259.1 million barrels in early February (2026-02), inventories fell 47.5 million barrels over roughly 15 weeks to 211.6 million barrels by the week ending May 22 (2026-05-22), a rate of depletion that oilprice.com described as record-fast for that stretch of the calendar. The August 28 (2026-08-28) reading carries the running deficit to approximately 53 million barrels below the winter peak, without any meaningful seasonal recovery.1
Commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, dropped 4.5 million barrels to 424.5 million barrels for the week ending August 28 (2026-08-28), Rigzone reported citing EIA data. Total petroleum stocks across all categories stood at 1.528 billion barrels on August 28 (2026-08-28), down 6.1 million barrels week on week and 141.6 million barrels year on year.4
Demand data cut the other way. Total products supplied over the four weeks ending August 28 (2026-08-28) averaged 20.5 million barrels per day, the EIA reported, down 3.0 percent from the same window a year earlier. Jet fuel tracked even weaker, off 1 percent year on year. Refiners were not throttling back: throughput ran at 17.5 million barrels per day for the week. The inventory deficit points to the supply side, not a surge in consumption.4,3
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve offers a thinner backstop than a year ago. Crude in the SPR stood at 286.6 million barrels on August 28 (2026-08-28), the EIA reported, down from 404.7 million barrels on August 29 (2025-08-29). That reduction makes the government reserve considerably less able to absorb a fresh supply shock than it was before Gulf conflict drawdowns accelerated.4
Cushing, Oklahoma, held roughly 21.6 million barrels as of mid-June (2026-06), close to operational stress levels according to The Star. Its normal operating range is around 40 million barrels against total capacity of up to 75 million. Those figures are three months dated; ICE Brent crude front-month traded at $101.78 per barrel and NYMEX WTI crude front-month at $96.67 per barrel as of 2026-09-09.2
Fuel stockpiles at the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp hub have also fallen to record lows, removing the arbitrage outlet that typically allows European product surplus to flow toward tight U.S. markets. With both sides of the Atlantic in deficit simultaneously, the usual cross-market corrective flows are not available.
The IEA projected in June (2026-06) that global oil demand would contract 1.1 million barrels per day in 2026, some 700,000 barrels per day below its prior forecast, after second-quarter deliveries fell five million barrels per day year on year amid higher prices and Gulf conflict disruptions. Demand contraction of that scale would normally allow product inventories to rebuild. Gasoline stocks sitting 11.9 million barrels below seasonal norms suggest the supply disruption has outrun demand reduction.2
Distillate inventories edged up 0.8 million barrels for the week ending August 28 (2026-08-28), the EIA reported, but remained 14 percent below the five-year average. Propane and propylene stocks fell 2.1 million barrels yet stayed 25 percent above the seasonal norm. Heating oil front-month traded at $4.80 per gallon as of 2026-09-09, with distillates thin going into an autumn demand uptick.4
The EIA's next weekly petroleum status report, covering the week ending September 4 (2026-09-04), will show whether the Labor Day holiday weekend, one of the last high-demand periods of the U.S. driving season, produced a further draw or allowed gasoline stocks to stabilise before autumn refinery maintenance begins to constrain throughput.4