The federal government shutdown hit the U.S. Energy Information Administration last Friday and the agency will not publish its weekly report on petroleum data nor its weekly natural gas storage report, both due tomorrow as a result of the Columbus Day holiday. Our best information for the week comes instead from the American Petroleum Institute (API).

The API said on Wednesday evening that the U.S. inventory of crude oil grew by 5.9 million barrels in the week ending October 11th. Gasoline stockpiles were reported down 2.2 million barrels and distillates were down by 1.3 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Platts were expecting a gain of 2.25 million barrels in the nation’s crude oil supply, a rise of 400,000 barrels in the gasoline supply, and a drop of 1.3 million barrels in the supply of distillates.

WTI crude prices dropped by $0.10 a barrel to $102.19 immediately after the API announcement. Crude prices rose about 1.1% late today following the agreement on a deal to end the government shutdown and temporarily to increase the nation’s debt ceiling.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.