U.S. stockpiles of crude oil were expected to have fallen last week whereas gasoline and distillates inventories were seen rising, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell 1.8 million barrels in the week to Jan. 13.

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 Wednesday, and the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 11:00 a.m. (1600 GMT) on Thursday, delayed by a day on account of the Martin Luther King Day federal holiday.

Crude inventories rose by 19 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 6 to 439.6 million barrels. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 2.2 million-barrel drop.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have increased by about 500,000 barrels last week.

Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose by around 2.3 million barrels last week.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen 3.8 percentage points higher from 84.1% of total capacity for the week ended Jan. 6, the poll found.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Deep Vakil in Bengaluru Editing by Marguerita Choy)