U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories fell sharply last week on strong export demand, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.
Crude stocks declined by 3.4 million barrels in the week ended July 26 to 433 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1 million-barrel draw.
Stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. crude futures fell by 1.1 million barrels in the week, the EIA said.
Exports of crude oil rose by 733,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.9 million bpd last week, resulting in a drop in net imports of 651,000 bpd to just over 2 million, the EIA said.
Oil futures pared gains slightly after the data. U.S. crude futures traded $2.10, or $2.8%, higher at $76.83 a barrel by 10:53 a.m. ET (1453 GMT), while Brent crude rose $1.90, or 2.4%, to $80.55.
Gasoline stocks fell by 3.7 million barrels in the week to 223.8 million barrels, the EIA said, more than thrice expectations for a 1 million-barrel draw.
However, distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.5 million barrels in the week to 126.8 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel drop. East Coast stocks of the fuel rose to their highest since March 2023.
Refinery crude runs fell by 257,000 bpd, and refinery utilization rates fell by 1.5 percentage points in the week to 90.1% of total capacity.
(Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston Editing by Marguerita Choy)