U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose unexpectedly last week, building for the first time since late June, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell more than forecast, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 1.36 million barrels to 430.7 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 9, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.2 million-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 1.7 million barrels, the EIA said.
Crude futures extended losses following the surprise build. Brent futures were trading at $80.23 a barrel, down about 46 cents, by 11:08 a.m. ET (1508 GMT), while U.S. crude fell 70 cents to $77.66 a barrel.
“The six-week draw was pretty impressive but that’s in the rearview mirror. The fact that we snapped the streak should weigh on prices a little bit,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.
Refinery crude runs rose by 65,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates rose by 1 percentage point in the week to 91.5%.
Gasoline stocks fell by 2.9 million barrels in the week to 222.2 million barrels, the EIA said, more than double expectations for a 1.3 million-barrel draw. Gasoline inventories are now at their lowest since November.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week to 126.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 520,000-barrel draw, the data showed.
Jet fuel consumption fell by 346,000 bpd to 1.6 million bpd. Consumption of the aviation fuel has been dragging after a strong start to the year as economic concerns weigh on demand.
The four-week average for product demand was at 20.56 million bpd, down 1.7% from the same period a year ago.
Net U.S. crude imports edged down by 57,000 bpd to 2.53 million bpd, while exports rose 118,000 bpd to 3.76 million bpd, the EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver Editing by Marguerita Choy)