Stocks of crude oil in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 6.2 million barrels in the week ending July 3 to 319.5 million barrels, the lowest level since April 1983, according to data from the Department of Energy.
The drawdown is part of a U.S. agreement to release 172 million barrels from the facility to plug a gap in global inventories since the Iran war and help push down fuel prices.
Since the war began at the end of February, overall U.S. inventories, including commercial and SPR stocks, have fallen by 120.71 million barrels to 734 million barrels as of June 26, the lowest since 1984.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston, editing by Deepa Babington)