By Julianne Geiger – May 06, 2026, 9:42 AM CDT
Crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 2.3 million barrels during the week ending May 1, according to new data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released on Wednesday. The decrease brings commercial stockpiles to 457.2 million barrels, according to government data, which is still 1% above the five-year average for this time of year.
According to weekly EIA data, crude oil inventories in the United States have increased by 1 million barrels over the last 6 weeks.
The EIA’s data release follows API’s figures that were released a day earlier, which reported that crude oil inventories saw a draw of 8.1 million barrels in the period. The gap between API and EIA prints is being driven in part by timing, with large draws and builds appearing across adjacent reporting weeks rather than in the same release.
Crude prices came crashing down on Wednesday as President Trump halted Project Freedom, citing great progress toward a final agreement with Iran. At 9:49 a.m. in New York, Brent was trading at $102.50 per barrel—down $7.33 (-6.67%) on the day, and down roughly $14 per barrel from this time last week. WTI was also trading down on the day, by $6.49 per barrel (-6.35%) in early morning trade at $95.78, down nearly $9 per barrel week over week.
For total motor gasoline, the EIA reported that inventories had decreased by 2.5 million barrels on top of the 6.1 million barrels lost in the week prior. The most recent figures showed that average daily gasoline production decreased to 9.6 million barrels. For middle distillates, inventories decreased by 1.3 million barrels, with production decreasing to an average of 4.9 million barrels daily. Distillate inventories are still 11% below the five-year average.
Demand has not been swayed by the recent price hikes. Total products supplied—a proxy for U.S. oil demand—averaged 20.3 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up 2.6% compared to the same period last year. Gasoline demand averaged 9.0 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, while the distillate four-week average supplied averaged 3.8 million barrels—up 3.5% percent year over year.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
