US crude stockpiles rise, fuel draws down last week - EIA - Reuters
US crude stockpiles rise, fuel draws down last week - EIA | Reuters
US crude stockpiles rise, fuel draws down last week - EIA
An oil storage tank and crude oil pipeline equipment is seen during a tour by the Department of Energy at the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Freeport, Texas, U.S. June 9, 2016. REUTERS/Richard Carson/File Photo Acquire Licensing Rights
Nov 15 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles jumped last week, while gasoline inventories posted a surprise draw as refineries picked up runs amid seasonally strong demand, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
The EIA resumed publishing weekly data after a two week hiatus to complete a planned systems upgrade.
Crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) rose by 3.6 million barrels in week to Nov. 10 to 421.9 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.8 million-barrel rise.
Refiners, who had been slow to emerge from fall maintenance, began ramping up slowly amid stronger demand for products.
Refinery crude runs (USOICR=ECI) rose by 164,000 barrels per day last week, while utilization rates (USOIRU=ECI) rose by 0.9 percentage point to 86.1% of total capacity.
Gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI) fell by 1.5 million barrels in the week to 223.5 million barrels, the EIA said, a surprise draw that countered analysts' expectations for a 600,000-barrel rise.
"To the extent that this gasoline demand persists, we would expect refiners to ramp up a bit," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
Distillate stockpiles (USOILD=ECI), which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.4 million barrels in the week to 111.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Oil futures pared some losses immediately after the data. U.S. crude futures last traded at $71.55 per barrel, while Brent crude futures traded around $82 a barrel.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub (USOICC=ECI) rose by 1.9 million barrels in the last week while U.S. crude imports (USOICI=ECI) fell by 385,000 bpd, EIA said.
Reporting by Laura Sanicola
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