The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 1.8 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory to 397.6 million barrels. They remain above the upper limit of the five-year range for this time of the year.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels again last week and have moved into the middle of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the EIA’s measure of consumption) averaged 8.6 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up about 1.4% from the same period a year ago.

Distillate inventories slipped by 400,000 barrels last week and remain below the lower limit of the average range. Distillate product supplied averaged 4.1 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, up by 11.6% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 5 million barrels a day last week, about 100,000 barrels a day above the prior week’s production.

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Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 1.8 million barrels in the week ending May 2, together with a rise of 2.5 million barrels in gasoline supplies and a rise of 763,000 barrels in distillate supplies. For the same period, Platts estimated a rise of 1.3 million barrels in crude inventories, a decline of 900,000 barrels in gasoline inventories and a rise of 1.5 million barrels in distillate inventories.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices opened at $99.83 on Wednesday and were trading up about 0.8% before the EIA report at around $100.11 a barrel. The WTI price rose slightly to around $100.33 shortly after the report was released.

For the past week, crude imports averaged 6.9 million barrels a day, down about 598,000 barrels a day from the previous week. Refineries were running at 90.2% of capacity, with daily input of 15.9 million barrels a day, down just 50,000 barrels below the previous week’s average.

Retail pump prices are lower this week, for the first time since last fall. The end of the refinery turnaround coupled with the continuing rise in gasoline inventories is keeping price increases at bay for a while.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $3.666, down from $3.691 a week ago and up from $3.579 a month ago. Last year a gallon of regular cost $3.525 on average in the United States.

Here is a look at how share prices at three U.S. producers are reacting to this latest report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 0.4%, at $103.09 in a 52-week range of $84.79 to $103.45.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 1%, at $126.26 in a 52-week range of $109.27 to $127.83.

Continental Resources Inc. (NYSE: CLR) traded up about 1.4%, at $136.73 in a 52-week range of $80.30 to $138.69. Continental is the largest producer in the Bakken shale play.

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