U.S. crude and distillates stockpiles were expected to have risen last week, while gasoline inventories likely drew down, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Four analysts polled by Reuters estimated that crude inventories on average rose by 900,000 barrels in the week to Aug. 2.

The poll was conducted ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute 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. EDT (1430 GMT) on Wednesday.

Crude stocks decreased by 3.4 million barrels in the week ended July 26 to 433 million barrels, the EIA said, more than three times analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a drop of 1.1 million barrels. Stocks fell for a fifth straight week, the longest such streak since January 2021.

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline fell by about 1.9 million barrels last week, while distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have increased by about 200,000 barrels.

The rate of refinery utilization was estimated to have increased by 0.9 percentage point from 90.1% of total capacity in the previous week, the poll found.

All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery run changes are measured in percentage points.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Anushree Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Paul Simao)