The latest petroleum storage report from the federal government showed the Cushing Hub has dropped even more due to the drain on supplies caused by the fighting in the Middle East.
This week’s U.S. Energy Information Administration report issued Wednesday showed the 400 large storage tanks at the hub in northern Oklahoma fell to 21,640 million barrels of crude oil. The numbers were as of June 5. The next release date will be June 17.
As OK Energy Today reported last week, inventories at Cushing had fallen to a critical level of 22.4 million barrels. It means the fall in the past week totaled another 800,000 barrels of crude oil. However, the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed that there had been a decline of 4 million barrels since the end of February when the war started against Iran. And between June 2 and May 29, the inventories fell by 500,000 barrels.
The working capacity at Cushing is 78.4 million barrels. One analytics firm recently explained if Cushing reaches what is considered to be an “operational level,” it means there won’t be enough oil in a tank to pump and transfer between tanks. It also will result in a more difficult challenge to blend oils, and it could have a harmful effect on either delaying or even cutting the flow of oil from Cushing to oil refineries on the Gulf Coast.
