U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week fell more than expected as strong refining activity continued despite Hurricane Beryl, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels to 440.2 million barrels in the week ending July 12, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 33,000-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. futures fell by 875,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Brent crude and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude(WTI) futures were little changed following the report.
“The positive element was the large crude inventory draw,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo. “But implied demand and builds in gasoline and distillate inventories were disappointing,” Staunovo added.
Gasoline stocks rose by 3.3 million barrels in the week to 233 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a 1.6 million-barrel draw.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.5 million barrels in the week to 128.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 800,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
U.S. diesel and gasoline futures pared gains after the report.
Refinery crude runs fell by 181,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates fell by 1.7 percentage points in the week.
Some refiners along the U.S. Gulf Coast and offshore producers were impacted last week by Hurricane Beryl, which knocked out power and brought heavy rain and wind.
“The refineries, despite the widespread power outages, seem to have held up,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital.
On the East Coast, refining utilization rose last week to 93%, its highest since April 2023.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 312,000 bpd, the EIA said.
Crude oil imports from Canada hit a record high last week, buoyed by the startup of the newly expanded Trans Mountain (TMX) pipeline, the data showed. Imports rose by 807,000 bpd to 4.4 million bpd in the week, the largest gain since March 2023.
(Reporting by Nicole Jao in New York and Georgina McCartney in Houston Editing by Marguerita Choy)