U.S. crude oil stockpiles were expected to have dropped last week, whereas gasoline and distillates inventories were seen up, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories dropped by about 200,000 barrels in the week to Dec. 16.

The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. ET (2130 GMT) on Tuesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

Crude inventories increased by 10.2 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 9 to 424.1 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.6 million-barrel drop.

Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose by about 1.9 million barrels last week.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have increased by 700,000 barrels last week.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen unchanged from 92.2% of total capacity for the week ended Dec. 9, the poll found.

All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery runs change is measured in percentage points.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Rahul Paswan in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)