The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories decreased by 6.8 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 470.6 million barrels. The commercial crude inventory remains near levels not seen at this time of year in at least the past 80 years.

Tuesday evening, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that crude inventories fell by 6.7 million barrels and gasoline inventories also declined by 3.9 million barrels in the week ending June 5. For the same period, analysts had estimated a decrease of 1.6 million barrels in crude inventories.

Total gasoline inventories decreased by 2.9 million barrels last week according to the EIA, and remain in the upper half of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged about 9.4 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 1.7% compared with the same period a year ago.

A number of top-level reports out this week tell the same story but differ slightly in the details. The EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook released Tuesday now estimates U.S. oil production for 2015 at 9.4 million barrels a day, dropping to 9.3 million in 2016. OPEC’s monthly report forecast total U.S. liquids production for 2015 at 13.56 million barrels a day. According to OPEC, the United States produced 9.53 million barrels of oil a day in March. BP PLC (NYSE: BP) released its annual statistical review on Wednesday as well, noting that the United States is the first country ever to increase crude oil production by more than 1 million barrels a day for three consecutive years.

ALSO READ: OPEC Market Strategy Boosts Crude Oil Price

Before the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for July delivery traded up about 1.8% at around $61.25 a barrel. The WTI price surged higher to around $61.50 (up 2.3% for the day) immediately after the report was released. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $47.46 to $97.27.

Distillate inventories increased by 900,000 barrels last week and remain in the middle of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged over 3.9 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 1.7% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged 5.1 million barrels a day last week, up about 100,000 barrels a day compared with the prior week’s production.

For the past week, crude imports averaged more than 6.6 million barrels a day, down by 750,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 94.6% of capacity, with daily input of around 16.6 million barrels, about 169,000 barrels a day above the previous week’s average.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $2.745, down from $2.756 a week ago and up from $2.658 a month ago. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular cost $3.646 on average in the United States.

ALSO READ: Why the U.S. Government Is Adding to Strategic Petroleum Reserve

Here is a look at how share prices for two blue-chip stocks and two exchange traded funds reacting to this latest report.

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded up about 0.9%, at $85.30 in a 52-week range of $82.68 to $104.76. Year to date, Exxon stock traded down about 7.8%, and it is down about 10% since early November as of Tuesday’s close.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded up about 1.6%, at $101.92 in a 52-week range of $98.88 to $135.10. As of Tuesday’s close, Chevron shares have also dropped about 9.2% year to date, and they trade down about 12.5% since early November.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 2.2% to $20.50, in a 52-week range of $15.61 to $39.44.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded up about 2.3% to $37.52, in a 52-week range of $31.51 to $58.01.

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