U.S. crude oil and gasoline inventories soared last week, while distillate stockpiles fell, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday. Crude inventories rose by 16.3 million barrels in the week to Feb. 10 to 471.4 million barrels, the highest level since June 2021.
Analysts said an unusually large crude oil supply adjustment in the EIA data contributed to the outsized build.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for futures rose by 659,000 barrels last week, the EIA said, also the highest since 2021. Refinery crude runs fell by 383,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates fell by 1.4 percentage points in the week. "The refinery run rate continues to be lackluster, but when you do the math, it's hard to get to 16 million barrels," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York. U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.3 million barrels to 241.9 million barrels, the EIA said, far exceeding analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5 million-barrel rise.?
Distillate stockpiles , which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 million barrels to 119.2 million barrels, versus expectations for a 400,000-barrel rise. Net U.S. crude imports fell by 1.07 million bpd, the EIA said. (Reporting by Laura Sanicola Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
