EIA Delays U.S. Oil Report to After-Hours—Timing Echoes DOGE-Era Market Cuts
Regulators just moved the goalposts—again. The Energy Information Administration pushed its weekly U.S. oil inventory report past the closing bell, a scheduling shift that smells familiar to anyone who traded through the DOGE-era cuts.
Playing by New Rules
This isn't about data—it's about control. By releasing market-moving intel after traders log off, the EIA bypasses the live volatility frenzy. Think of it as a circuit breaker for the oil pits, a deliberate slowdown for a market that moves at meme-speed.
The Ghost of Cuts Past
The move whispers of 2021, when sudden production cuts reshaped everything. Back then, the shockwaves hit instantly. Now? The shock is scheduled, sterilized, and delivered with bureaucratic precision. It's risk management, refined into an art form—and a stark reminder that the folks with the data decide when you get to react.
Modern markets don't sleep, but official reports increasingly do. This after-hours shuffle might calm the daily chaos, but it just shifts the frenzy to the pre-market and the dark pools. After all, in finance, there's no such thing as a free delay—someone's always paying for the extra time, usually the retail trader staring at a stale screen.
Staff cuts disrupted systems behind the petroleum report
The EIA said the publication date changed to match the holiday schedule, but the internal code used to generate the report was not updated at the same time. The agency said this mismatch slowed the creation of tables and files used to publish the report.
The agency said the issue did not affect the accuracy of the data and said the problem would not happen again.
The staffing reductions came from buyouts and restructuring tied to a government efficiency push that was previously associated with Elon Musk. The EIA lost more than 100 employees this year from a workforce of about 350 people.
Several of those who left had worked directly on systems used to build the petroleum report. The report relies on multiple surveys and software systems, and the loss of staff reduced the number of people who understood how those systems connect.
Tristan Abbey, the EIA Administrator, said the agency needs faster progress to fix its aging technology.“Without decisive acceleration, we’re going to have much bigger problems than delayed data tables,” Tristan said in a statement.
He said staff are working to rebuild critical products that are written in outdated programming languages and said the work is continuing at full speed.
Delays like this are rare for the petroleum report. During the recent government shutdown, the figures were still released on time. The report includes weekly data on U.S. oil inventories, which are widely followed by energy traders, refiners, and analysts.
Oil prices held steady as geopolitics drove trading
Despite the delay, the oil market showed little reaction. Traders focused more on global political events than on U.S. inventory levels. Scott Shelton, an energy specialist at TP ICAP Group Plc, said traders showed little concern about the missing data.
“There is a general indifference to it other than rolling their eyes on how inefficient and unpredictable data has become from the US government, post the shutdown,” Scott said.
Oil prices were steady on Tuesday after a volatile session. Brent crude for February delivery, which expires Tuesday, slipped 2 cents, settling at $61.92 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 13 cents, closing at $57.95 a barrel.
Both benchmarks had risen more than 2% on Monday after Saudi Arabia launched airstrikes against Yemen. Prices also moved higher after Moscow accused Kyiv of targeting a Russian presidential residence.
The accusation hurt expectations for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Kyiv rejected the claim, saying it was baseless and aimed at disrupting negotiations.
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