U.S. crude oil stockpiles are expected to have fallen for a third consecutive week, with gasoline and distillate inventories also seen lower last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Five analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories fell by about 1.0 million barrels in the week to April 28.

Crude inventories USOILC=ECI fell by 5.1 million barrels in the week to April 21 to 460.9 million barrels, far exceeding analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5 million-barrel drop.

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

57 BCF TO 49 BCF (SIX FORECASTS)

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline USOILG=ECI fell by about 600,000 barrels last week, while distillate USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, decreased by about 1.5 million barrels.

The rate of refinery utilization USOIRU=ECI was seen 0.3 percentage point higher from 91.3% of total capacity for the week ended April 21, the poll found.

All figures for stocks are in millions of barrels. Refinery runs change is measured in percentage points.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Ananya Bajpai in Bengaluru; editing by Jonathan Oatis)