The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its weekly petroleum status report Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude inventories increased by 7.8 million barrels last week, maintaining a total U.S. commercial crude inventory of 502.7 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 rose by 3.8 million barrels in the week ending January 29. For the same period, analysts had estimated an increase of 3.5 million barrels in crude inventories.

Total gasoline inventories increased by 5.9 million barrels last week, according to the EIA, and remain well above the upper limit of the five-year average range. Total motor gasoline supplied (the agency’s measure of consumption) averaged over 8.7 million barrels a day for the past four weeks, down by 0.9% compared with the same period a year ago.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil traded higher by more than 4.4% last week, closing at $33.62 a barrel on Friday. In early morning trading Wednesday, the price fell to a low of $29.40, down about 12.6%. Crude prices rose at the end of last week on chatter that Russia was willing to discuss production cuts with some OPEC members. Why anyone really thought that would happen is a mystery. Russia has never been willing to cut production to boost prices for everyone, and there was no reason to believe that this time was different. If anything, the re-entry of Iran into the global crude market is likely to keep prices down as the Iranians fight to win back market share.

Before the EIA report, WTI crude for March delivery traded up about 1.4% at around $30.30 a barrel. WTI settled at $29.88 on Tuesday and slipped to around $29.79 shortly after the report’s release. The 52-week range on WTI futures is $27.56 to $65.69.

Distillate inventories decreased by 800,000 barrels last week but remain near the upper limit of the average range for this time of year. Distillate product supplied averaged over 3.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, down by 16% when compared with the same period last year. Distillate production averaged over 4.4 million barrels a day last week.

For the past week, crude imports averaged about 8.3 million barrels a day, up by about 647,000 barrels a day compared with the previous week. Refineries were running at 86.6% of capacity, with daily input averaging over 15.6 million barrels, about 24,000 barrels a day below the previous week’s average.

The slowdown in refinery runs is aiding and abetting the buildup in crude oil inventories. Of course with gasoline supplies also increasing, even at the slower refining pace, prices at the pump really should remain on their downward trajectory.

According to AAA, the current national average pump price per gallon of regular gasoline is $1.783, down about 2.5% from $1.828 a week ago and almost $2.00 from a month ago. Last year at this time, a gallon of regular gasoline cost $2.067 on average in the United States.

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

Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM) traded down up about 0.3%, at $74.82 in a 52-week range of $66.55 to $93.45. Over the past 12 months, Exxon stock traded down about 19% and is down about 23% since early November of 2014, as of Tuesday’s close.

Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) traded down about 0.9%, at $80.52 in a 52-week range of $69.58 to $112.93. As of Tuesday’s close, Chevron shares have dropped about 27% over the past 12 months and trade down about 33% since early November 2014.

The United States Oil ETF (NYSEMKT: USO) traded up about 1.3%, at $8.67 in a 52-week range of $7.92 to $21.50.

The Market Vectors Oil Services ETF (NYSEMKT: OIH) traded down about 2.6% to $22.09, in a 52-week range of $20.46 to $39.80.

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