(Reuters) – U.S. crude inventories fell for the third time in a row, while fuel stockpiles rose in the week ending December 6, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday, as refinery activity remained seasonally strong.
Crude inventories fell by 1.4 million barrels to 422 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 901,000-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub were down by 1.3 million barrels, the EIA said.
Brent and U.S. crude futures pared gains following the larger-than-expected build in fuel inventories. Heating oil and gasoline futures also fell, but were still up on the day.
Global Brent futures were trading at $72.92 a barrel, up 74 cents, at 1557 GMT (1057 EST). U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures were at $69.5 a barrel, up 91 cents.
U.S. refinery utilization rates notched lower by 0.9 percentage points in the week to 92.4%, but remain relatively robust. The four-week average was at 91.6%, up from 89.4% the same period last year.
“That’s still a very strong sort of number,” said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital in New York, referring to refining activity. “And this is time of year refineries should be cranking it out. They are not in maintenance season,” he added.
Refinery crude runs fell by 251,000 barrels per day last week to 16.66 million bpd, and net U.S. crude imports dropped last week by 170,000 barrels per day, EIA said.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 5.1 million barrels in the week to 219.7 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.7 million-barrel build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.2 million barrels in the week to 121.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.4 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
“Big build in gasoline – that speaks to the high level of refinery output and the seasonal lackluster demand for the fuel,” Kilduff said.
Product supplied for gasoline, a proxy for demand, was at 8.8 million bpd last week, up slightly from the prior week.
Meanwhile, U.S. field production of crude rose to a record high of 13.6 million bpd last week.
“Domestic production continues its march higher into uncharted territory,” said Matt Smith, an analyst with ship tracking firm Kpler.
Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama
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