(Reuters) – U.S. oil and gasoline stocks fell last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday, as refiners stepped up their crude processing and gasoline demand remained sturdy in the summer driving season.
Crude inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels to 409.7 million barrels in the week to July 10, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.6 million-barrel draw.
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Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 430,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.
Refinery crude runs rose by 99,000 barrels per day, the EIA said, while refinery utilization rates rose by 0.4 percentage points in the week to 96.2%. “Ongoing strength in refining activity amid peak summer driving demand has encouraged a draw to crude inventories, although its magnitude has been stymied by ongoing SPR releases and a slowing pace of crude exports,” said Matt Smith, director of Commodity Research at Kpler.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels in the week to 210.5 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for an 760,000-barrel draw. Product supplied of finished motor gasoline, a proxy for demand, eased by 1,000 bpd to 8.84 million bpd in the week. U.S. gasoline futures edged higher to trade at $3.25 a gallon after the data but largely gave up their gains after.Brent, U.S. crude futures and U.S. ultra low sulphur diesel futures were little changed. “Gasoline demand was just okay for this time of year. We keep seeing sub 9 million barrels so that took away from any of the report’s bullishness,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 4.6 million barrels in the week to 108.2 million barrels, versus expectations for an 84,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 399,000 bpd, EIA said.
Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Georgina McCartney; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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