US Distillate Inventories
Ending stocks of distillate fuel oil — diesel and heating oil across all sulfur grades — from the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Weekly since August 1982, in millions of barrels. Distillate is the fuel of trucks, trains, farms, ships and (in the Northeast) home heating, and the US is a large net exporter of it.
Distillate stocks (million barrels)
- YoY %
- -9.0%
Next release: ≈ Aug 26, 2026
Latest reading
As of August 14, 2026, Distillate Stocks (Distillate stocks (million barrels)) stands at 105.6 — down from 107.1 the prior reading, 43% below the December 10, 1982 record of 186.0. Distillate is where refining tightness shows first: inventories near the bottom of their history mean diesel must be priced high enough to ration demand and pull barrels from exports, which is what a diesel crack far above the gasoline crack is telling you. The stock level has trended down for years as export demand grew and refineries closed, so a "record low" here is partly structural; the fair comparison is against recent years, and the 1980s levels mislead. Series history runs from 1982 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-08-21 · Open ↓Close ↑
Full history
Million barrels
Year-over-year %
Distillate stocks against the same week a year earlier, which removes the winter heating-oil build and summer draw.
Methodology & data
Distillate Stocks is sourced from EIA directly from the publisher’s own dataset (EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WDISTUS1), weekly, million barrels; release date estimated as the Wednesday after each survey week). We pull the complete history, chart it on a weekly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-08-21. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the US Distillate Inventories?
Ending stocks of distillate fuel oil — diesel and heating oil across all sulfur grades — from the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report. Weekly since August 1982, in millions of barrels. Distillate is the fuel of trucks, trains, farms, ships and (in the Northeast) home heating, and the US is a large net exporter of it.
How do you read Distillate Stocks?
Distillate is where refining tightness shows first: inventories near the bottom of their history mean diesel must be priced high enough to ration demand and pull barrels from exports, which is what a diesel crack far above the gasoline crack is telling you. The stock level has trended down for years as export demand grew and refineries closed, so a "record low" here is partly structural; the fair comparison is against recent years, and the 1980s levels mislead.
Where does the Distillate Stocks data come from?
EIA Weekly Petroleum Status Report (WDISTUS1), weekly, million barrels; release date estimated as the Wednesday after each survey week. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/distillate-inventories.csv.
How often is Distillate Stocks updated?
Distillate Stocks is a weekly series from EIA, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts from EIA.
Distillate stocks (million barrels)
- YoY %
- -9.0%
Next release: ≈ Aug 26, 2026