EIA stock data delayed due to "systems issues", hits diesel surcharge price

Quantum Commodity Intelligence – US inventory data from the Energy Information Administration will not be published this week due to what the government agency described as "system issues".

Data for the week ending June 17 was due for publication Thursday, already delayed by 24 hours due to Monday's US holiday, but has now been postponed until next week.

In a short statement the EIA said: "Several US Energy Information Administration (EIA) product releases scheduled for the week of June 20, 2022, will be delayed as a result of systems issues. Our experts are working on a solution to restore the affected systems.

"We will release the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report as scheduled on June 23. All other data releases scheduled for this week will be delayed. We will resume our normal production schedule and release delayed data as soon as possible."

The stocks data is typically one of the highlights of the weekly energy calendar, providing a comprehensive update on US inventories, oil demand, refinery output and import/export volumes.

The average retail diesel price published each week by the EIA, which is used as the basis for most fuel surcharges in the trucking industry has also been delayed, reported FreightWaves, noting the diesel fuel surcharges entered Thursday is using a price that is now more than 10 days old, and that the updated number won't be published this week at all.

Chris Higginbotham, a spokesman for the EIA, told FreightWaves on Thursday that the agency has experienced a "pretty serious hardware issue" and that no petroleum-related data is expected to be released this week.

However, Higginbotham also said the agency did collect the normal survey data Monday and the information remains in its possession. The EIA will therefore be able to produce a weekly average retail price effective June 20, the day the survey was taken.

As for whether or not the agency will be able to conduct next week's survey in a timely manner, Higginbotham said that was uncertain at this time. 

"This is some mess that EIA is dealing with. It doesn't expect to have any petroleum data this week. This could be a significant issue for trucking, which sets its diesel surcharge on the basis of EIA data," said FreightWaves market analyst, John Kingston.