U.S. crude oil inventories were expected to have dropped for the sixth consecutive week, while gasoline and distillate inventories likely rose last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
Five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude stocks decreased by about 3.4 million barrels in the week to Dec. 31.
Crude inventories fell 3.6 million barrels in the previous week to 420 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop.
Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose about 3 million barrels last week.
Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have increased by about 2.7 million barrels.
The rate of refinery utilization was seen rising 0.5 percentage point from 89.7% of total capacity for the week ended Dec. 24, the poll found.
(Reporting by Kavya Guduru in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy)