Oil Prices Are Flat Ahead of EIA Inventory Report

As of 9:08 am EST, the price of crude had fallen by 0.2 percent to reach $77.06 a barrel and the price of heating oil was unchanged.

HEAT USA Price Report

Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: Up $0.08
Morning projection (for Thursday’s average price per gallon): Up $0.03

Oil prices were little changed after earlier trading activity pushed crude oil briefly above $78 a barrel. The EIA’s inventory report is expected to show a decline in stockpiles of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, due to cold weather in the US Northeast. Analysts are split in their predictions of whether crude inventories grew or shrank; the API’s inventory data, released Tuesday afternoon, showed a 4.7 million barrel increase in crude inventories. If the EIA were to confirm such a buildup, it could weigh on the prices of all oil products.

HEAT USA price experts report that investors await the EIA report, due at 10:30 am. Crude and heating oil prices have risen sharply in recent days, partly because of expectations that fuel demand in the US has increased. That could mute the impact of the EIA’s inventory numbers, since growing oil demand has already been accounted for in current oil prices.