Gas prices this week: EIA gasoline inventories jumped 3.9 million barrels while crude drew down

The surprise in the gas price story this week is not crude oil. It is gasoline inventory, and it landed this morning right where households were watching. The Energy Information Administration's Weekly Petroleum Status Report, released October 28 for the week ending October 23, showed U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.870 million barrels against the 0.942 million barrel draw that market surveys had expected. That outsize build, arriving in a week when refineries actually ran less, is the mechanism behind a national average price of regular gasoline that had already eased to $4.269 a gallon as of October 26, and it sets up a friendlier pump print next week.

Key takeaways EIA gasoline inventories…