The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced today that the country's inventories of crude oil, gasoline, and distillates declined last week.
In a statement, the EIA reported that crude oil inventories fell by 3 million barrels to 423.7 million barrels, compared to expectations of a 591,000-barrel decrease.
It also noted that crude stocks at the Cushing delivery hub in Oklahoma rose by 453,000 barrels. Crude oil inputs to refineries increased by 213,000 barrels, while refinery utilization rates rose by 1.5 percentage points during the week.
Gasoline inventories dropped by 1.3 million barrels to 227.1 million, versus expectations for a 400,000-barrel decline.
The EIA data further showed that distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, decreased by 565,000 barrels to 113 million barrels, against expectations for a 775,000-barrel increase. Net crude oil imports fell by 794,000 barrels per day.
