U.S. stockpiles of crude oil were estimated to have declined last week while gasoline and distillate were seen building, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
Five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 2.3 million barrels in the week to Dec. 1.
The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 10:30 a.m. EST (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels in the week to Nov. 17 to 449.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 933,000-barrel drop.
Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline were up by about 1.2 million barrels last week, and distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, were seen increasing by about 1 million barrels.
The rate of refinery utilization was expected to increase 0.8 percentage point from 89.8% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found.
(Reporting by Daksh Grover in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy)