U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 5.2 million barrels to 421.2 million barrels in the week ended October 31, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 603,000-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub increased by 300,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Oil futures pared losses despite data showing a larger-than-expected buildup in inventories. Global Brent futures were trading at $64.22 a barrel, down 22 cents at 10:37 a.m. EST (1537 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 30 cents to $60.26 a barrel.
Refinery crude runs rose by 37,000 barrels per day, the EIA said, while utilization rates fell by 0.6 percentage points to 86% in the week.
U.S. gasoline stocks dropped by 4.7 million barrels to 206 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1 million-barrel draw.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 643,000 barrels to 111.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 867,000 bpd, EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Rod Nickel)