U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories fell last week, while distillate stockpiles rose, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude stocks fell by 9.3 million barrels to 415.4 million barrels in the week ended September 12, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 857,000-barrel draw.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 296,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

Crude oil futures rose following the larger-than-expected drawdown but then pared some of those gains and were still in negative territory. Global benchmark Brent crude futures were trading at $68.23 a barrel, down 24 cents at 10:36 a.m. EDT (1436 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were trading at $64.24 a barrel, down 28 cents.

Refinery crude runs fell by 394,000 barrels per day in the week, while utilization rates fell by 1.6 percentage points in the week to 93.3%.

Gasoline stocks fell by 2.3 million barrels in the week to 217.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 100,000-barrel build.​

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 4 million barrels in the week to 124.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

Net U.S. crude imports fell by 3.11 million bpd, the EIA said.
Source: Reuters