U.S. crude inventories likely fell last week, while those of gasoline were up, and distillates were steady, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories decreased by around 1.2 million barrels in the week to June 3.

The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, due at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Wednesday, and the U.S. 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 rose by 2 million barrels in the last week to 416.8 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.9 million-barrel drop.

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline increased by about 800,000 barrels last week.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to be unchanged.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen up 0.5 percentage point from 94.2% of total capacity for the week ended June 3, the poll found.

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