Cushing Inventories Tight at 19.7 Million Barrels
Cushing, Oklahoma currently holds 19.7 million barrels of crude oil. This represents 25.9% of the hub's 76 million barrel capacity. Inventories built 0.71 million barrels this week.
Current Level
As of July 2, 2026
Utilization
Available Space
vs. Last Year
Storage Utilization
About Cushing, Oklahoma
Cushing is the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contracts, making it the most important oil storage hub in North America. Known as the "Pipeline Crossroads of the World," Cushing connects major pipelines from producing regions in the Permian Basin, Bakken, and Canadian oil sands to refineries across the country.
Why Cushing Matters for Oil Prices
Price Discovery
WTI futures prices are physically settled at Cushing. When storage fills up, WTI can trade at steep discounts to Brent crude. When storage is tight, WTI commands a premium.
April 2020 Event
When Cushing approached capacity limits during COVID-19 demand collapse, WTI futures briefly went negative for the first time in history — settling at -$37.63 per barrel.
2-Year Cushing Storage History
Access This Data via API
Access Cushing storage data programmatically. Weekly updates with capacity metrics and historical data.
/v1/ei/oil_inventories/cushingcurl -X GET "https://api.oilpriceapi.com/v1/ei/oil_inventories/cushing"
Sample Response
{
"data": {
"current_level": 19.67,
"capacity": 76,
"utilization_percent": 25.88157894736842,
"week_over_week_change": 0.709,
"year_over_year_change": 0,
"operational_min": 20,
"available_capacity": 56.33,
"report_date": "2026-07-02"
},
"meta": {
"source": "EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report",
"updated_at": "2026-07-02"
}
}Cushing Storage FAQ
Cushing is the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Its storage levels directly impact WTI pricing — low inventories can cause WTI to trade at a premium, while high levels can pressure prices downward.
Cushing has approximately 91 million barrels of working storage capacity across dozens of tank farms. About 20 million barrels are considered "tank bottoms" — the minimum operational level — leaving around 71 million barrels of usable capacity.
When Cushing approaches capacity, WTI prices can disconnect from global benchmarks and even turn negative, as occurred briefly in April 2020. Producers may have to shut in wells or find alternative storage, creating severe market stress.