US crude inventories sink 8.557M barrels in week, far surpassing 288K draw forecast

• The previous week's crude inventory change was a draw of 3,186K barrels.
• Gasoline inventories increased by 3,518K barrels, compared with an anticipated draw of 800K barrels.
• Distillate stocks fell by 2,527K barrels, versus a forecast decline of 1,560K barrels.

Prior to the data release, WTI crude was trading at its highest levels since late September. It added $2.33 during the session to settle at $97.41. Earlier, from Montana, President Trump repeated his usual refrain that the Iran war will end "very soon" and that "oil prices will drop like a rock." No imminent diplomatic breakthrough is evident.

The data reinforce the bullish outlook, with the wider-than-expected drop in distillates exacerbating tightness across refined products, though the gasoline build offers some offset.

It is worth noting that the consensus figures did not incorporate the privately collected inventory data from late Tuesday, which had indicated a major draw in US crude supplies.

• Crude oil: -11.1 million barrels
• Gasoline: +1.1 million barrels
• Distillates: -1.5 million barrels
• Cushing, Oklahoma: +1.8 million barrels

The US Energy Information Administration’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report is the most widely followed gauge of the US oil market. It is published every Wednesday at 10:30 am Eastern, or on Thursday during holiday-shortened weeks, and covers the week ending the previous Friday.

The main figure is the change in commercial crude holdings, which excludes the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Market participants compare the number with the analysts' average estimate; a larger-than-expected build is usually seen as bearish, while a bigger draw is bullish. The report also monitors inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for WTI futures, where the level can disproportionately influence the front of the futures curve.

Beyond crude, the data cover gasoline and distillate stocks—the latter includes diesel and heating oil—as well as refinery utilization, domestic crude output, imports and exports. "Product supplied" serves as a demand proxy, tracking the volume of fuels leaving primary storage. Strategic Petroleum Reserve inventories are reported separately, with changes determined by government policy rather than market forces.

The numbers are derived from surveys and can be volatile from week to week. Large moves in imports and exports alone can produce multimillion-barrel builds or draws that can reverse the following week. Many analysts therefore emphasize multiweek trends, seasonal adjustments and the combined change across crude and products rather than any single week's figure.

The American Petroleum Institute issues its own private survey on Tuesday afternoons at 4:30 pm ET, giving the market an early snapshot. The two sets often diverge, but the EIA numbers are regarded as the official reference and typically cause a larger move in oil prices.