HOUSTON/DENVER Aug 13 (Reuters) — US crude inventories unexpectedly rose as imports increased, while gasoline stockpiles fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 3 million barrels to 426.7 million barrels in the week ended August 8, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 275,000-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 45,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.
Oil prices were down following the report, with global Brent crude futures trading at $65.27 a barrel, off 85 cents at 11:10 EDT (1510 GMT). US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were trading at $62.23 a barrel, off 94 cents.
Refinery crude runs rose by 56,000 barrels per day last week, while utilization rates fell by 0.5 percentage points to 96.4 percent, the EIA said.
Midwest refinery utilization rose to its highest since December 2023.
“Refiners are still cranking it out, so we still have good crude demand,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital in New York.
US gasoline stockpiles fell by 792,000 barrels in the week to 226.3 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a 693,000-barrel draw.
Gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, slipped by 40,000 bpd to 9 million bpd.
“That is still a strong gasoline demand number, but it is late in the season. I’m not sure it will matter to the market because we are at the end of the line in terms of the summer driving season, and the focus is now more on distillates as we get into the fall,” said Again Capital’s Kilduff.
