U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 1.9 million barrels to 465.7 million barrels in the week ended April 17, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.2 million-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 806,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.
Refinery crude runs fell by 55,000 barrels per day in the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates fell by 0.5 percentage points in the week.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 4.6 million barrels in the week to 228.4 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5 million-barrel draw.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.4 million barrels in the week to 108.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.5 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.21 million barrels per day, EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Arathy Somasekhar in Houston; )