U.S. crude stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 959,000 barrels to 414.6 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 3, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 184,000-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 2.5 million barrels.
Brent and U.S. crude futures extended losses after the data showed a larger-than-expected drop in crude stocks.
Refinery crude runs rose by 45,000 barrels per day (bpd), the EIA said.
Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.6 percentage points in the week to 93.3%.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 6.3 million barrels in the week to 237.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 1.5 million-barrel build.
U.S. gasoline futures extended gains after the data showed a drop in crude stocks.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 6.1 million barrels in the week to 128.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 600,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
U.S. heating oil futures extended losses after the larger-than-expected build in distillate stocks.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 278,000 bpd to 3.35 million bpd, the EIA said
Weekly crude exports fell 776,000 bpd to 3.08 million barrels per day.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)