The EIA Petroleum Status Report
The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly Petroleum Status Report discloses crude and product inventory levels, and its Wednesday release is one of the most closely watched, market-moving data prints in commodity trading.
Every Wednesday at 10:30am Eastern (barring a public holiday, which shifts it), the EIA publishes its Weekly Petroleum Status Report, giving traders a snapshot of U.S. crude oil and refined product inventories — how many barrels of crude, gasoline, and distillates sat in storage the previous week, how much refineries processed, and how much was imported and exported. Because U.S. inventory swings are one of the clearest available readings on the balance between oil supply and demand, the report routinely moves crude prices within seconds of release, especially when the change in stockpiles differs from what analysts had forecast.
A build in crude inventories (more barrels in storage than the week before) signals supply outpacing demand and typically pressures prices down; a larger-than-expected draw signals the opposite. Traders watch not just the headline crude number but also gasoline and distillate stocks, and the level at Cushing, Oklahoma — the delivery point for the WTI futures contract — since storage capacity constraints there can amplify price moves. The American Petroleum Institute releases its own competing estimate a day earlier, which the market also trades on despite being less complete, precisely because it arrives first.
The EIA's Wednesday Petroleum Status Report is a closely watched inventory data release whose surprise relative to analyst expectations — not just its absolute level — is what tends to move crude oil prices on release.
Further reading
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Weekly Petroleum Status Report