U.S. crude and gasoline stocks fell last week while distillate inventories rose, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 4.3 million barrels to 452.9 million barrels last week, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.1-million-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub dropped by 1.7 million barrels in the week ended May 8, the EIA said.
Oil futures extended gains following the larger-than-expected decline in stockpiles. Global Brent crude futures were trading at $108.04 a barrel, up 27 cents, at 10:37 a.m. ET (1437 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were up $1.10 a barrel to $103.28.
Refinery crude runs rose by 370,000 barrels per day in the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates climbed by 1.6 percentage points in the week to 91.7%.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 4.1 million barrels in the week to 215.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.9-million-barrel draw.
Gasoline futures gave up some earlier losses following the bigger-than-anticipated decline in inventories.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 0.2 million barrels in the week to 102.5 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.7-million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 318,000 barrels per day, the EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Rod Nickel)