Distillate Stocks Fall 3.6 Million Barrels to 13% Below Average

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories decreased 0.9 million barrels to 409.8 million barrels in the week ending Oct. 30, according to the Energy Information Administration's Weekly Petroleum Status Report released Wednesday, Nov. 4. The EIA said that level is 4% below the five-year average. The release excludes the Strategic Petroleum Reserve from that figure.

Distillate inventories fell 3.6 million barrels, 13% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline inventories decreased 0.2 million barrels and sit 2% below the five-year average. Propane/propylene inventories decreased 1.6 million barrels and are 10% above the five-year average. Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 8.2 million barrels for the week.

Refinery activity rose. In the EIA's words, "U.S. refineries processed 16.7 million barrels per day (b/d), up 199,000 b/d from the previous week, at 94.5% capacity utilization." Gasoline output averaged 9.7 million b/d, while distillate production decreased to 5.2 million b/d.

Crude oil imports decreased 1,000 b/d to 6.4 million b/d. The four-week average of 6.1 million b/d is 9.5% above the year-ago level, the EIA said. Gasoline imports averaged 351,000 b/d and distillate imports averaged 117,000 b/d.

Demand figures in the release are four-week averages. Total product supplied averaged 21.2 million b/d, up 4.2% from a year earlier. Gasoline product supplied decreased 0.4% year over year to 8.6 million b/d. Distillate product supplied increased 8.7% to 4.2 million b/d, and jet fuel product supplied decreased 2.8% year over year.

The CFTC's Commitments of Traders report is published weekly by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. It shows the futures positions held by groups of large traders as of Tuesday, usually released the following Friday. The latest report on WTI crude oil positioning covers positions as of Tuesday, Oct. 27, and was released Oct. 30. Those positions were held before the EIA release of Nov. 4.

Managed money held a net long position of 31,128 contracts in NYMEX WTI light sweet crude oil futures, down 5,059 contracts from 36,187 the previous week. Open interest stood at 1,886,280 contracts, and the weekly change equaled 0.3% of open interest. The move was larger than 17% of weekly moves in the 3-year window.

The 3-year COT index places the latest net position within its range over the past 3 years: 0 is the lowest net position in that window and 100 the highest. Managed money's WTI reading was 24. Other COT reports for tracked markets are available on AlphaScala.

WTI crude oil (CL) was at $98.69 as of 12:03 UTC on Nov. 6, according to AlphaScala price data. More price context sits on the crude oil market page.

Within the 3-year window, managed money's net long peaked at 253,879 contracts on Jan. 7, 2025, and bottomed at a net short of 38,154 contracts on Oct. 21, 2025.