Tuesday 's data from the American Petroleum Institute , which releases its inventory figures a day earlier than the more closely followed Energy Information Administration , showed that distillate stocks , which include heating oil , rose by 3.6m barrels last week , confounding expectations of a 1.8m barrel fall . " The distillate number is particularly bad news for the bulls in that it occurred over a week where weather conditions were bitterly cold across the US , " said Edward Meir at MF Global .