[REVISION HISTORY]

US wholesale and petroleum inventory trends

Updated 1 time since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

What changed

2026-08-11 22:43 UTC → 2026-08-13 06:42 UTC · added ~~removed~~

In early August 2026, U.S. inventory data showed fluctuations in both wholesale and petroleum stocks. Initial reports for June indicated that U.S. wholesale inventories rose by 0.2%, while petroleum stocks saw a 3.9% decrease. During that same period, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported that crude oil inventories grew by 2.5 million barrels, leaving total commercial stockpiles approximately 6% below the five-year average. By mid-August, data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) showed a much larger surge in crude oil inventories, which increased by over 9 million barrels for the week ending August 7. This build significantly exceeded analyst expectations of a 500,000-barrel draw and was attributed to higher crude imports relative to exports. While crude stocks rose, gasoline and distillate inventories continued to decline, and an additional 6.1 million barrels were removed from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Official data from the EIA for the week ending August 7 later revealed an even more substantial and unexpected spike, reporting a crude oil inventory increase of 17.4 million barrels. This brought total inventories to 424.4 million barrels, diverging sharply from economist forecasts of a 1.4 million-barrel decrease. While the EIA figure was significantly higher than the API’s estimate, the EIA noted that current crude levels remain approximately 2 percent below the five-year average. Gasoline inventories decreased by 1.0 million barrels, and distillate fuel inventories edged down by 0.1 million barrels.

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