EIA Says Wednesday's Weekly Oil Report to Include Delayed Data

By Dan Molinski

Closely-watched weekly government data on U.S. oil inventories that wasn't released last week due to electrical problems will instead be released this Wednesday at the same time as this week's report, the Energy Information Administration said Tuesday.

"We will publish the Weekly Petroleum Status Report tomorrow, June 29, at its regularly scheduled time," the Washington-based government agency said. "That release will include the data for the week ending June 17, which would have been published June 22, and the data for the week ending June 24."

An EIA spokesperson added in a follow-up email that "the release tomorrow will come as one report, but it will have the data separated out for June 17 and June 24...the table will look the same as it would have."

The rare, extended delay in releasing the weekly data was due to a "voltage irregularity" that caused hardware failures, the EIA said Tuesday. In Wednesday's statement it said it is still having "ongoing issues" for other data.

The oil inventory report normally is released like clockwork and investors view the data itself as extremely reliable and unaffected by politics. It is seen as an invaluable tool for investors in energy markets to gauge supply and demand balances that play a key role in crude-oil prices and share prices for oil companies.

By doubling up on the oil inventory data Wednesday, the move should put the EIA back on track as far as the oil inventory reports are concerned. But it is unclear when other delayed reports will also get back up to speed. Those would include reports that track and assess retail diesel prices. The lack of that data has been a problem for the trucking industry which uses it in applying and adjusting surcharges.

Write to Dan Molinski at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

06-28-22 1022ET