U.S. crude oil and gasoline stockpiles likely fell again last week, while distillate inventories were expected to increase, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.
Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated that crude inventories on average fell by about 1.3 million barrels in the week to March 22, which would be a third consecutive weekly drawdown.
The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell for the second week in a row, dropping by 2 million barrels to 445 million barrels in the week ended March 15, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 13,000-barrel rise.
Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline were down by 1.7 million barrels last week, which would be a drawdown for an eighth week in a row.
Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to increase by about 500,000 barrels.
The rate of refinery utilization was estimated to increase by 0.9 percentage point from 87.8% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found.
(Reporting by Daksh Grover in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy)