U.S. crude stocks rose last week as refinery utilization slipped, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, as winter storms sweeping the country hit fuelmakers’ operations and boosted distillates demand.
Crude inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels to 415.1 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 24, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.2 million-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 326,000 barrels to 21 million bpd.
Crude oil futures trimmed losses slightly after the data showed total U.S. oil demand rose last week. The four-week average for total U.S. product demand was at 20.29 million bpd, up 2.5% from a year ago.
Refinery crude runs fell by 333,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates fell by 2.4 percentage points in the week to 83.5%.
“This was really the winter blast report, with strong heating fuel demand and refineries dialing back,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital in New York.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 5 million to 124 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.3 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed, marking their largest weekly fall since March 2022.
Distillate fuel oil supplied, a proxy for demand, rose last week to 4.51 million bpd, up from 4.11 million bpd on the week, hitting its highest levels since March 2022.
U.S. diesel futures rose after the report.
Distillate stocks in the Midwest meanwhile rose last week to their highest since January 2024.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3 million barrels to 248.9 million barrels compared with analysts’ expectations for a 1.3 million-barrel build. U.S. Gulf Coast gasoline stocks rose last week to their highest since August, the data showed. “We’re in the shoulder demand season for gasoline right now. We continue to see it to be soft,” Kilduff added.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 532,000 bpd, EIA said, to 2.76 million bpd.
Weekly crude exports fell 829,000 barrels per day to 3.69 million bpd.
(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)