U.S. crude oil and distillate stockpiles were seen increasing last week, while gasoline inventories likely declined, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Nine analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 800,000 barrels in the week to May 19, which would be a third consecutive week of builds.

Crude inventories rose by 5 million barrels in week to May 12 to 467.6 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 900,000-barrel drop

The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. EDT (2030 GMT) on Tuesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 10:30 a.m. (1430 GMT) on Wednesday.

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline by about 1.1 million barrels last week, while distillate, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by about 400,000 barrels.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen 0.6 percentage point higher from 92.0% of total capacity for the week ended May 12, the poll found.

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