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U.S. crude stockpiles rise, fuel stocks down in most recent week – EIA

U.S. crude stocks rose more than anticipated as refineries pulled back on activity in the most recent week, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.

Crude stocks have been generally falling in recent months as demand has picked up with production rising only modestly. In the most recent week, stocks in the U.S. Midwest and at the Cushing, Oklahoma, hub fell to their lowest levels since 2018.

Crude inventories rose by 6.1 million barrels in the week to Oct. 8 to 427 million barrels, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 702,000-barrel rise.

That came as refinery crude runs fell by 683,000 barrels per day, and utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 2.9 percentage points. Refiners often power down units at this time of year for maintenance.

“It’s all about the slide in refinery utilization rate, which is down over 2% so you get the associated big build in crude oil,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.

Product supplied slipped in the most recent week, but the four-week average of product supplied by refineries, a proxy for demand, was 20.7 million bpd, about in line with pre-pandemic levels.

Oil prices pulled back from earlier gains on the news. U.S. crude was up 19 cents to $80.62 a barrel at 11:24 a.m. EDT (1524 GMT), off the session high of $81.68 a barrel. Brent LCOc1 was up 34 cents at $83.51 a barrel.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 2 million barrels in the last week, EIA said.

Net U.S. crude imports fell by 1.4 million barrels per day, EIA said.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 2 million barrels in the week to 223.1 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 83,000-barrel drop.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 24,000 barrels in the week to 129.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 933,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by David Gaffen; Editing by David Gregorio)

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