U.S. crude oil futures reversed earlier gains and were trading lower Wednesday morning after the Energy Information Administration released its weekly petroleum inventory and demand estimates.

West Texas Intermediate futures were struggling to hold on to gains at about 11 a.m. ET, with March West Texas Intermediate contract off 10cts to $63.11/bbl and the April contract down by about as much to $62.72/bbl. The front-month contract rose to as high as $64.17/bbl in early trading.

Brent crude futures were trading higher. The April contract was up 31cts to $67.64/bbl and the May contract was 28cts higher at $66.96/bbl.

Distillate futures were mixed. The NYMEX March ULSD contract was off 0.6ct to $2.4033/gal, while the April contract was up 0.5ct to $2.3316/gal. The front-month contract was about 4.4cts off its earlier high of $2.4474/gal.

Gasoline futures were trading higher. The March RBOB was up 2.38cts to $1.9217/gal, not far off the morning's high. The April contract was up 1.81cts to $2.1487/gal.

The Energy Information Administration on Wednesday said U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 700,000 bbl in the week ended Friday, leaving them about 4% above the five-year average. Distillate holdings fell by 5.6 million bbl last week and are about 2% below the five-year average. Distillate demand last week was high as frigid weather gripped much of the country and natural gas supply curtailments led to users capable of using both fuels to switch to diesel for heating and power generation.

The agency also estimated U.S. crude stocks fell last week by 3.5 million bbl, leaving them about 4% below the five-year average. The decline in crude stocks came as the cold weather led to freeze-off in some producing regions of the country. EIA said U.S. oil production dropped last week by about 481,000 b/d to 13.215 million b/d.

While several U.S. refineries reported outages and slowdowns during the cold weather, EIA data showed refinery utilization fell last week by only half a percentage point to 90.5% of capacity.

EIA said gasoline demand fell last week by nearly 600,000 b/d to 8.153 million b/d as drivers filled their tanks ahead of the wintry weather and many stayed home to avoid snow- and ice-covered roads. Still, the demand reading was largely in line with typical late-January estimates. Distillate products supplied to the market rose last week by 242,000 b/d to 4.31 million b/d, the agency said.

This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

--Reporting by Steven Cronin, scronin@opisnet.com; Editing by Jeffrey Barber, jbarber@opisnet.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 04, 2026 12:09 ET (17:09 GMT)

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