Wednesday is the day the government releases its energy inventory information — and depending upon the news the markets can either be made happy — or nervous.

The result today? Nervous. And when that happens we all know what that means. Yep, higher prices.

The nation’s stockpiles of crude fell to 316 million barrels for the week ending April 4, the Energy Information Administration reported this morning.

This was down 3.2 million barrels on the week. Analysts surveyed by Platts had been looking for an increase of 2.7 million barrels.

But wait, there’s more.

U.S. gasoline supplies fell 3.4 million barrels in the latest week, while distillate supplies, which include heating oil, diesel and jet fuel, dropped 3.7 million barrels.

Both of these are bigger than expected drops as well.

You all know what’s coming next. Yep. Bad news.

The price of a barrel of crude is now trading at about 111.30, as it has shot up almost $3 on the day.

Update: Oil ended the day at 110.87.