U.S. crude oil stockpiles were seen rising last week, while a decline was expected in distillate and gasoline inventories, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.

Six analysts polled by Reuters estimated on average that crude inventories rose by about 600,000 barrels in the week to March 10.

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.

Crude inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels to 478.5 million barrels in the week ending March 3, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.4 million-barrel rise.

Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, were expected to have decreased by about 1.2 million barrels last week.

Analysts estimated stockpiles of gasoline fell by about 2.2 million barrels last week.

The rate of refinery utilization was seen 0.5 percentage point higher from 86.0% of total capacity for the week ended March 3, the poll found.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Harshit Verma in Bengaluru; Editing by David Gregorio)