US crude oil inventories rose by 1.019 million barrels in the week ending September 25th, versus forecasts for a 1.9 million-barrel draw. In the previous week, inventories increased by 1.79 million barrels. Commercial crude inventories excluding the SPR have fallen by 38 million barrels over the past 24 weeks, while total US crude inventories are up nearly 13 million barrels year to date. Another 800,000 barrels were released from the SPR, bringing total holdings to 283.8 million barrels. The generally accepted operational minimum is between 250 million and 300 million barrels. Gasoline inventories rose 2.99 million barrels after falling 2.16 million the previous week. Distillate inventories fell 286,000 barrels, following a 2.16 million-barrel decline. US oil production held at 13.94 million bpd in the week ending September 18th, unchanged from the previous week.