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The most reliable way to track U.S. crude inventories is to use the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WPSR), released normally at 10:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. Start with WPSR Table 4 for commercial and Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) stocks, calculate the week-over-week change, then compare it with the EIA’s consistent WTI crude-at-Cushing price series and the report’s production, import, export, refinery and product-supplied data.
A draw is not an automatic buy signal, and a build is not an automatic sell signal. The market reaction depends on expectations, where the change occurred, the other supply-flow numbers and which price measure you use.
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Why the weekly report matters
Crude oil inventories are a visible, recurring measure of the balance between oil entering and leaving the U.S. petroleum system. A rising stock level is called a build; a falling level is called a draw. Traders, analysts and businesses watch the number because it can reveal whether supply is accumulating faster than demand and refinery use can absorb it.
The WPSR is the authoritative recurring U.S. release for this purpose. It combines stock levels with flow information, allowing you to investigate a change instead of treating one headline number as a complete explanation. The report covers the week ending on a stated date, so always preserve that date when saving an observation.
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For a personal-finance reader, the data can help explain fuel-price news, inflation commentary and movements in energy-related investments. It is not, by itself, a forecast of gasoline prices or a guaranteed signal for buying or selling an asset.
When the EIA releases the WPSR
Normal Wednesday schedule
The EIA’s standard schedule places the WPSR at 10:30 a.m. Eastern time on Wednesday. The EIA information-release portal describes it as a time-critical release that is usually issued at that time.
That is a publication schedule, not a promise that every Wednesday will follow the normal clock. The EIA’s Weekly Petroleum Status Report Schedule lists holiday-adjusted release dates and times. Check that schedule before creating a recurring calendar event, trading plan or automated alert.
Use the week-ending date, not just the publication date
The report issued on a Wednesday describes conditions for the prior week ending on the date printed in the report. A spreadsheet row should therefore include both the release date and the week-ending date. News stories often refer to the Wednesday release, while the underlying observation belongs to the week-ending period.
Scheduled data change in October 2026
At the time of the latest available WPSR page used for this guide, the listed issue covered the week ending October 15, 2026. The EIA notice says that beginning October 21, 2026, it plans to publish third-party spot-price data daily and discontinue WPSR Tables 11 and 12. Verify the replacement data links and labels when that change takes effect. Do not assume a table number or download path will remain unchanged.
Where to find the inventory number
Start with WPSR Table 4
Open the EIA WPSR page after the scheduled release and confirm the week-ending date. Table 4 is titled “Stocks of Crude Oil by PAD District, and Stocks of Petroleum Products, U.S. Totals.” It provides the U.S. total crude-stock figures and the regional PAD District detail.
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For a history, download the CSV or XLS version. These formats make it easier to append each new week, calculate changes and audit a formula. Keep the PDF as a human-readable record if you need to cite the published table or check the layout against your spreadsheet.
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Record commercial crude stocks and Strategic Petroleum Reserve stocks in separate columns. They represent different policy and market concepts. Commercial inventories are the stocks normally used to assess operational supply and demand. SPR stocks are government-held emergency reserves and can change because of policy releases, purchases or other actions.
Do not combine the two series unless you clearly state that you are analyzing total crude held in both categories. Combining them can obscure a change in commercial availability. A commercial draw alongside a stable SPR can tell a different story from a combined draw caused mainly by an SPR transaction.
Read the companion flow tables
Table 4 tells you what stocks did; the accompanying tables help investigate why. Record the fields that are relevant to your question:
- Domestic crude production.
- Crude imports.
- Crude exports.
- Refinery inputs, which indicate how much crude refineries processed.
- Product supplied, an EIA demand-oriented measure for petroleum products.
A stock change can reflect several of these flows at once. For example, a draw may occur because refinery inputs rose, because imports fell, because exports increased or because more than one factor changed.
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- Check the schedule. Confirm whether the week has a holiday exception and note the expected release time in Eastern time.
- Open the WPSR after publication. Confirm the report’s week-ending date before copying any value.
- Download Table 4. Use CSV or XLS for your time series and retain the PDF for a readable reference.
- Capture both crude categories. Enter commercial crude stocks and SPR stocks in distinct fields, along with the PAD District figures if regional detail matters.
- Append the flow data. Add production, imports, exports, refinery inputs and product supplied for the same week-ending period.
- Calculate the weekly change. Subtract the prior week’s stock level from the current week’s level. A positive result is a build; a negative result is a draw.
- Retrieve a consistent WTI measure. Use the EIA crude oil at Cushing spot-price series in Table 11 while it remains available, or its officially identified successor after the October 2026 change.
- Compare like periods. Match the inventory observation to the correct WTI price period, then examine expectations and the other flow fields before assigning a cause.
How to calculate a build or draw
Basic formula
For any stock series, use:
Weekly change = current-week stocks − prior-week stocks
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- A positive result means stocks increased: a build.
- A negative result means stocks decreased: a draw.
- Keep the unit consistent, normally million barrels in the published table.
- Attach the week-ending date to the result.
Do the calculation separately for commercial stocks and SPR stocks. If you also calculate a combined figure, label it explicitly as commercial plus SPR and preserve the two component values beside it.
Illustrative spreadsheet example
Suppose a worksheet contains a commercial-stock value of 420.5 million barrels for one week and 423.0 million barrels for the next. The calculation is 423.0 − 420.5 = +2.5 million barrels, so the later week shows a 2.5-million-barrel build. These numbers are an illustration of the method, not a reported EIA observation.
A simple layout might use columns for release date, week-ending date, commercial stocks, SPR stocks, commercial change, SPR change, production, imports, exports, refinery inputs, product supplied and WTI price. Formula cells should refer to the immediately preceding week rather than to the row above without a date check; missing or revised weeks can otherwise create a false change.
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How to compare inventories with WTI prices
Use the EIA Cushing spot-price series consistently
Table 11 provides crude oil prices at Cushing, Oklahoma, a common WTI reference point. The EIA states that its monthly and weekly prices are calculated from daily data. That means the weekly figure is an average derived from daily observations, not a single intraday quote taken at the moment the inventory report was released.
While Table 11 is available, record the price period and the unit exactly as shown. After the planned October 21, 2026 publication change, follow the EIA’s replacement page and verify how the daily third-party spot-price data should be aggregated before extending your history.
Do not mix incompatible price measures
A weekly EIA spot-price average, a futures settlement and a live intraday quote answer different questions. If your inventory series is weekly, compare it first with the matching weekly WTI spot-price measure. If you separately study the immediate market reaction, create a second field for the futures or intraday observation and label its timestamp and contract clearly.
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| Inventory observation | Price measure to pair with it | What the comparison tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly stock level or weekly build/draw | Matching weekly WTI Cushing spot-price average | Whether the two weekly measures moved together or diverged |
| Release-time market reaction | A clearly timestamped futures or intraday quote | How prices responded immediately, subject to expectations and other news |
| Longer-term trend | A consistently constructed weekly or monthly price series | Whether inventory and price relationships persisted over a selected horizon |
Calculate price changes with the same discipline
For a weekly price series, calculate the change as current-period price minus prior-period price. You can also calculate a percentage change, but state whether the denominator is the prior week’s average or another benchmark. Do not call a single intraday move “the weekly price change.”
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Expectations can dominate the headline
Markets react to the difference between the reported number and what participants expected. A draw can coincide with a falling price if the draw was smaller than anticipated, if traders had already priced it in or if other information was more bearish. A build can coincide with a rising price when the build is smaller than expected or when a separate supply concern supports prices.
The official sources do not establish a universal fixed price response for every build or draw. Treat inventory as evidence about the supply-demand balance, not as a one-variable price rule.
Production, imports and exports change the interpretation
Higher domestic production can increase stocks, but a simultaneous rise in refinery inputs or exports can offset that effect. Imports may fall because of logistics, regional economics or timing, while exports can rise even when domestic demand is unchanged. Read those fields beside the stock change rather than inferring a cause from the stock number alone.
Refinery activity and product supplied matter
Refinery inputs show how much crude was processed. A strong refinery run can draw crude inventories while adding to product availability. Product supplied provides a demand-oriented context for petroleum products; it can help distinguish a stock movement associated with changing use from one associated primarily with supply flows.
Geography matters inside the U.S. total
Table 4’s PAD District detail can reveal regional differences hidden by the U.S. total. A national build could be concentrated in one district, while another district draws stocks because of refinery maintenance, transportation constraints or local demand. Use the regional columns when your question concerns a particular market rather than the national balance.
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Ways to track the data
| Tracking approach | Strength | Limitation | Best use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Official EIA WPSR and schedule | Primary source, defined release timing and downloadable tables | Requires checking holiday exceptions and handling table or page changes | Authoritative weekly record |
| Release-time alert | Reminds you to review the report soon after publication | Can encourage rushed interpretation before checking expectations and flows | Time-sensitive monitoring |
| End-of-day review | Allows the price move and related news to settle before analysis | Misses the immediate market reaction | Personal-finance tracking and journaling |
| CSV/XLS history | Supports formulas, filters and reproducible calculations | Needs a spreadsheet or data-analysis tool and careful date handling | Building a multi-week series |
| Chart-only interface | Fast visual inspection | May hide definitions, revisions, units or downloadable raw values | Quick trend checks after verifying the source |
| Commercial-only series | Focuses on operational market stocks | Omits government-reserve changes | Commercial supply-demand analysis |
| Commercial-plus-SPR series | Shows total crude held across both categories | Can blur the distinction between market and government inventories | Policy or total-holdings analysis when components remain visible |
| WTI spot-price comparison | Consistent EIA benchmark with weekly averages calculated from daily data | Does not represent every futures contract or local crude price | Like-for-like weekly comparison |
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Recommended columns
Use one row per week-ending date. Include:
- Release date and week-ending date.
- Commercial crude stocks and SPR stocks.
- Commercial, SPR and optional combined weekly changes.
- Production, imports, exports, refinery inputs and product supplied.
- WTI Cushing price, price period and price change.
- A notes field for holiday timing, unusual policy actions, revisions or a major expectation difference.
Freeze the source definition in a notes or metadata sheet. Write down whether a price is spot, futures or intraday; whether the inventory figure is commercial-only or includes SPR; and which EIA table supplied each column. This prevents a later table change from silently breaking the series.
Set a two-pass review routine
- Data pass: download the report, verify dates and units, enter values and check formulas.
- Interpretation pass: compare the result with the prior week, your expectation record, the flow fields and the selected WTI measure.
Keeping those passes separate reduces the risk of writing a causal explanation before confirming that the data were copied correctly.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Using the wrong release time
Symptom: an alert fires after the report has already appeared or on a holiday-adjusted day. Fix: consult the EIA schedule for each affected week and set the alert in Eastern time.
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Symptom: a headline about commercial crude is compared with a number that includes SPR. Fix: maintain separate columns and label every chart and calculation.
Comparing a weekly average with an instant quote
Symptom: a weekly EIA price is described as the price at the release timestamp. Fix: use the matching weekly average for weekly analysis and isolate any timestamped market reaction in a separate series.
Ignoring the week-ending date
Symptom: observations are shifted by one week because they were filed under the Wednesday publication date. Fix: store both dates and sort the history by week-ending date.
Assuming correlation proves causation
Symptom: every draw is explained as bullish or every build as bearish. Fix: compare the result with expectations, production, imports, exports, refinery inputs, product supplied and regional PAD data.
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Failing to adapt to the 2026 table change
Symptom: a tracker stops updating or points to a discontinued Table 11 or 12. Fix: when the change begins October 21, 2026, verify the EIA’s successor links, definitions and aggregation method before adding new price observations.
A concise weekly checklist
- Did I check the EIA holiday-adjusted schedule?
- Did I record the report’s week-ending date?
- Did I use WPSR Table 4 for the stock levels?
- Are commercial crude and SPR values separate?
- Did I calculate the change from the immediately prior week?
- Did I add production, imports, exports, refinery inputs and product supplied?
- Did I use a consistently defined WTI Cushing measure?
- Did I distinguish a weekly average from an intraday or futures quote?
- Did I compare the result with expectations before assigning a cause?
- Have I checked whether an EIA table or data page has changed?
Bottom line
Use the EIA WPSR as the foundation of a weekly crude-inventory tracker. Table 4 supplies the stock levels, CSV or XLS downloads support a clean history, and separate commercial and SPR columns preserve the meaning of each number. Pair the weekly change with the EIA’s WTI Cushing price series and the report’s flow data, while checking expectations and holiday-adjusted timing. The result is a disciplined way to understand oil-market information without mistaking one inventory headline for a guaranteed price forecast.
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