U.S. oil prices fell on Thursday after a weekly report from the Energy Information Administration ("EIA") revealed big additions to gasoline and distillate stockpiles.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, WTI crude futures lost 84 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $71.86 a barrel yesterday.

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Let's dig deep into EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report for the holiday-shortened week ending Dec 29.

Analyzing the Latest EIA Report

Crude Oil: The federal government’s EIA report revealed that crude inventories fell 5.5 million barrels compared to expectations of a 4 million-barrel decrease per the analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights. The higher-than-expected stockpile draw with the world’s biggest oil consumer was largely thanks to a combination of stronger refiner demand and higher exports, which more than offset continued high domestic production, which at 13.2 million barrels per day, is near all-time highs.

Total domestic stock now stands at 431.1 million barrels — 2.5% higher than the year-ago figure of 420.6 million barrels but 2% less than the five-year average.

However, on a slightly bearish note, the latest report showed that supplies at the Cushing terminal (the key delivery hub for U.S. crude futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange) edged up 706,000 barrels to 34.7 million barrels — the highest since July 2023.

Meanwhile, the crude supply cover decreased from 26.7 days in the previous week to 26.2 days. In the year-ago period, the supply cover was 27.1 days.

Let’s turn to the products now.

Gasoline: Gasoline supplies increased for the sixth time in seven weeks. The 10.9-million-barrel jump was primarily attributable to a pullback in exports and demand. Analysts had forecast that gasoline inventories would gain 2.3 million barrels. At 237 million barrels, the current stock of the most widely used petroleum product is 6.4% more than the year-earlier level, while it is slightly above the five-year average range.

Distillate: Distillate fuel supplies (including diesel and heating oil) rose for the sixth time in as many weeks. The 10.1 million-barrel surge mainly reflected a steep drop in consumption and strong production. Meanwhile, the market looked for a supply build of 2.6 million barrels. Following last week’s addition, current inventories — at 125.9 million barrels — are 6% above the year-ago level but 6% lower than the five-year average.

Refinery Rates: Refinery utilization, at 93.5%, rose 0.2% from the prior week.