The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve held 285.4 million barrels of crude oil in the week ending September 4, its lowest level since November 1982, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. energy statistics agency. Holdings fell 1.2 million barrels from the previous week and nearly 120 million barrels, or about 30%, from a year earlier, following a U.S. commitment to release 172 million barrels. Oil markets remained volatile after Houthi drone operations compromised Saudi Arabia’s east-west pipeline and forced a halt at the Yanbu facility, although Saudi Arabia later eased supply concerns by routing deliveries to Asian customers through ship-to-ship transfers near Oman’s Sohar port. Brent settled at $108.16 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate at $104.63 after a two-day rally that lifted both benchmarks more than 6% during the week. U.S. stockpiles in the newer account rose 7.1 million barrels, compared with analyst expectations for a 1.6 million-barrel decline, while commercial inventories in the EIA report fell 0.4 million barrels to 424.1 million barrels, matching the five-year average. Fuel-market strain also pushed U.S. diesel above $6 a gallon and European gasoil futures to record levels.