The U.S. Energy Information Administration published its weekly petroleum status report more than half an hour later than expected on Wednesday due to technical issues, although some traders got access to the data earlier than others.
Oil traders closely watch the weekly EIA report as it includes the U.S. government’s official update on crude and fuel inventories in the world’s largest oil-producing and consuming country. It heavily influences oil market benchmarks.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s statistical arm was unable to publish the report as expected at 10:30 a.m. ET (1530 GMT) on Wednesday as it was addressing technical issues, the EIA said on social media. The full data was published at 11:09 a.m.
Reuters was able to publish some data, showing the week-over-week change in oil stocks at the Cushing storage hub and refinery utilization rates, as early as 10:30 a.m.
Some market participants began sharing data on overall U.S. crude oil, gasoline, diesel and heating oil fuel stockpiles as early as 10:40 a.m. ET. It was not immediately clear how they were able to access the data.
The data showed a surprise increase in U.S. crude stocks in the week ended November 28, while gasoline and distillate fuel stocks climbed more than expected.
The EIA is investigating the issue and will address it, the agency later posted on X.
(Reporting by Nicole Jao and Shariq Khan in New York, Arathy Somasekhar in Houston Editing by Rod Nickel)