Crude Oil Imports Hit 10-Year High; Gas Supply Rises

Daily crude oil imports hit a 10-year high last week and gasoline supplies rose rather than declined as expected in the summer driving season, the American Petroleum Institute reported Tuesday.

For the week ended Aug. 18, API said crude oil imports rose to 6.9 million barrels a day from 6.4 million barrels a day in the previous week and were substantially higher than year-ago imports of 4.3 million barrels a day.

“At 6.9 million barrels a day, this was the highest one-week level of imports since 1979,” an API spokesman said, when they reached a weekly high of 7.7 million barrels day.

Last week, API also reported that imports in July accounted for more than half the nation’s crude and refined products for the first time in 12 years.

Partially as a result of the import increase, crude oil inventories last week rose to 335.2 million barrels from 330.7 million barrels in the prior week, the API said.