U.S. crude stockpiles fall, fuel inventories rise: EIA

U.S. crude stockpiles fell, but gasoline and distillate inventories both rose substantially, alleviating a bit of concern about market tightness, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 3.7 million barrels in the week to Nov. 18 to 431.7 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.1 million-barrel drop.

The decline in inventories was tempered by another release of barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The White House decided earlier this year to release 180 million SPR crude barrels after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused global prices to surge.

Those sales are now largely finished, leaving the SPR at its lowest levels since 1984, and raising concerns about more market tightness in coming months.

Refinery crude runs rose by 258,000 barrels per day in the last week, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy said.

Refinery utilization rates rose by 1 percentage point to 93.9 of totally capacity last week, with rates on the East Coast hitting a record high.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.1 million barrels in the week to 211 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 383,000-barrel rise.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.7 million barrels to 109.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 550,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.12 million bpd, EIA said.

Oil prices, which were already lower on the day, dipped on the data. Brent crude was down $4.01, or 4.5 per cent, to $84.35 a barrel, while U.S. crude dropped $3.89, or 4.7 per cent, to $77.07 a barrel.

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