By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. crude stocks, gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, while U.S. oil production rose to the highest since May 2020, Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 3.6 million barrels in the last week to 420 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.1 million-barrel drop.
U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels in the week to 222.66 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 0.5 million-barrel rise.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.7 million barrels in the week to 122.43 million barrels, versus expectations for a 0.2 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Distillate inventories saw drawdowns particularly in the Midwest and Gulf Coast, where stockpiles fell to the lowest since December 2020 and July 2019, respectively, the data showed.
“It’s a decent enough drawdown for crude,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. “It’s draws across the board which are supportive. We do continue to creep up on domestic production which is positive.”
Meanwhile, oil production rose to 11.8 million barrels per day, the highest since May 2020, the data showed.
In the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, oil stockpiles fell to 595 million barrels, the lowest since November 2002, the data showed.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.1 million barrels in the last week, the EIA said.
Refinery crude runs fell by 115,000 barrels per day, while refinery utilization rates rose by 0.1 percentage points, it said.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 515,000 barrels per day, the EIA said.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Laura Sanicola; editing by Barbara Lewis and Chizu Nomiyama)
