Trump: The United States has only four weeks left to "run out of oil reserves"

On June 18, President Trump made remarks at the end of the G7 press conference about the rapid decline in crude oil reserves. Trump told reporters: "Our reserves will be exhausted in about four weeks." U.S. EIA crude oil inventories fell by 8.26 million barrels last week, and analysts expected a drop of 3.69 million barrels, a decline far exceeding expectations. Inventories at the Cushing hub have fallen to 20 million barrels for eight consecutive weeks, the lowest level since 2014, and most traders believe they have reached the minimum level necessary to maintain operations. Cushing is the physical delivery place for WTI crude oil futures contracts, and its inventory level is critical to the pricing of benchmark U.S. crude oil futures.