U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 95,000 barrels to 428.9 million barrels in the week ended August 21, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 597,000-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.2 million barrels in the week, the EIA said. Oil futures pared earlier losses following the smaller-than-expected build in inventories. Global Brent crude futures were trading at $87.69 a barrel, down 89 cents at 10:37 a.m. ET (1437 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were down 54 cents to $81.72 a barrel.
Refinery crude runs fell by 2,000 barrels per day in the week, the EIA said, while utilization rates rose by 0.2 percentage points in the week to 97.4%.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 2.5 million barrels in the week to 206.8 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.7 million-barrel draw.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.2 million barrels in the week to 103.4 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.6 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 161,000 barrels per day, EIA said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Laila Kearney in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )