U.S. crude stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week as refining activity climbed, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories dropped by 1.3 million barrels to 424.4 million barrels in the week ended December 12, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1 million-barrel draw. Wednesday’s EIA report marked a sharp contrast from an inventory report released on Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute showing a 9.3 million-barrel draw in stocks last week.
Crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub fell by 742,000 barrels last week, the EIA said.
Oil futures pared gains following the larger-than-expected build in fuel inventories, but were still trading in positive territory.
Global Brent crude futures were trading at $59.64 a barrel, up 72 cents, at 10:55 a.m. ET (1555 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 69 cents to $56.96 a barrel.
“A modestly bearish report, with a large gasoline build not helping,” said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst with UBS. “Definitely considerably bearish compared to API report.”
Refinery crude runs rose by 128,000 barrels per day during the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates edged up 0.3 percentage point to 94.8%.
U.S. gasoline stocks added 4.8 million barrels in the week to 225.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1 million-barrel build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.7 million barrels in the week to 118.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Total product supplied, a proxy for demand, fell by 509,000 bpd to 20.57 million bpd.
Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 719,000 barrels per day, EIA said, while U.S. crude exports rose by 655,000 bpd to 4.66 million bpd.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Rod Nickel and Joe Bavier)