U.S. crude oil stockpiles were seen down for the sixth week in a row, while gasoline and distillate inventories likely rose last week, an extended Reuters poll showed on Tuesday.

Ten analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude stocks decreased by about 3.3 million barrels in the week to Dec. 31.

Crude inventories fell 3.6 million barrels in the previous week to 420 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop.

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 Tuesday, and the EIA, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy, due at 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) on Wednesday.

Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline rose about 1.8 million barrels last week.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have increased by about 1.5 million barrels.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen rising 0.4 percentage point from 89.7% of total capacity for the week ended Dec. 24, the poll found.
Source: Reuters