United States commercial crude oil inventories fell by 900,000 barrels in the week ending October 30, to 409.8 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its official weekly report on Wednesday, November 4 — the government's own count following the industry estimate published a day earlier. Stockpiles are now 4% below the five-year average for this time of year, the EIA data showed.

Source: OilPrice.com reporting EIA data, November 4, 2026

The official draw was far smaller than the industry's first estimate. The American Petroleum Institute (API) had reported a day earlier that crude inventories fell by 5.267 million barrels in the same week — the figure behind Tuesday's market coverage — while eight analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected a rise of about 880,000 barrels. Seeking Alpha's reading of the EIA release put the precise crude change at -0.9 million barrels against -1.9 million the week before, with a consensus estimate of -1.7 million, and Investing.com's calendar recorded -865,000 barrels against +877,000 expected. At Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery hub for U.S. crude futures, inventories rose by 280,000 barrels, reversing the previous week's 624,000-barrel draw, according to EIA figures reported by CryptoBriefing.

Diesel-type fuel is the tight part of the report

For truckers, the most important line is distillates — the diesel-type fuels that power heavy trucks and heat homes. Distillate inventories decreased by about 3.6 million barrels on the week, with the detailed calendar reading at -3.565 million against only -100,000 expected, and distillate stocks are now 13% below the five-year average, OilPrice reported from the EIA data. Distillate production decreased to an average of 5.2 million barrels a day, while demand ran strong: the four-week average of distillate supplied was 4.2 million barrels a day, up 8.7% from the same period a year earlier.

Gasoline inventories decreased by 200,000 barrels, after growing by 3.9 million barrels in the week prior. Average daily gasoline production increased to 9.7 million barrels, and gasoline demand averaged 8.6 million barrels a day over the last four weeks. Total commercial petroleum inventories slipped by 8.2 million barrels during the reporting period.

Refineries running hard, demand holding up

Refineries processed 16.7 million barrels of crude a day in the reported week and operated at 94.5% of their operable capacity, according to the EIA report summarised by Forex Factory. Crude oil imports decreased by 1,000 barrels a day to 6.4 million barrels a day. Total products supplied — a proxy for U.S. oil demand — averaged 21.2 million barrels a day over the last four weeks, up 4.2% compared with the same period last year, the EIA data showed.

Prices fell anyway

Oil prices dropped on Wednesday despite the draw. Brent futures were trading down $2.89, or 2.79%, at $100.71 a barrel at 10:09 a.m. in New York, down roughly $15 a barrel from the same time last week, and West Texas Intermediate was down $2.79, or 2.90%, at $93.30, down nearly $9 on the week, OilPrice reported. Reuters reported that traders were weighing Washington's next move in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran after Democrats captured control of Congress in Tuesday's midterms, alongside the inventory data.

The wider backdrop matters for every Punjabi trucker filling up this week. The EIA's weekly retail survey put the national average on-highway diesel price at $6.292 a gallon for the week ending November 2, with California at $8.076 — a spread of more than $2 a gallon between the cheapest and most expensive regions. With distillate stocks 13% below the five-year average heading into the winter heating season, analysts cited by Commercial Carrier Journal this week warned that diesel price pressures will linger into 2027, driven by refining constraints and tight global fuel markets.