U.S. crude stocks fell last week as imports slumped to the lowest since 1997, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday.
Crude inventoriesfell 7.2 million barrels in the last week, compared with analysts' expectations for an increase of 750,000 barrels. The drop was smaller than the over-10-million-barrel drop reported on Tuesday by the industry group American Petroleum Institute (API).
"It looks like the drop in imports was the driver," said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. "The drop in imports still leaves me wondering: where did the oil disappear to, because the refinery capacity use was basically unchanged."
U.S. crude oil futureswere little changed immediately after the data, but later stretched the day's gains to around $1.50 a barrel, up around 50 cents from earlier.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hubfell 225,000 barrels, EIA said.
Refinery crude runsrose 282,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. U.S. crude imports fell last week by 658,000 bpd to just 6.4 million bpd, the lowest level since 1997.
Refinery utilization was little changed nationwide, but rose 4.6 percentage points on the East Coast.
"That’s a very big number and that speaks to some of the crude stocks. They get some crude by rail," said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. "That could explain some of the pull-down in commercial crude oil stocks.”
Gasoline stocksrose nearly 1 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 79,000-barrel gain.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 3.4 million barrels, the EIA data showed, versus expectations for a 293,000-barrel drop.
Source: Reuters
Crude inventories
"It looks like the drop in imports was the driver," said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. "The drop in imports still leaves me wondering: where did the oil disappear to, because the refinery capacity use was basically unchanged."
U.S. crude oil futures
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub
Refinery crude runs
Refinery utilization was little changed nationwide, but rose 4.6 percentage points on the East Coast.
"That’s a very big number and that speaks to some of the crude stocks. They get some crude by rail," said Richard Hastings, a macro strategist at Global Hunter Securities in Charlotte, North Carolina. "That could explain some of the pull-down in commercial crude oil stocks.”
Gasoline stocks
Distillate stockpiles
