Feb 22 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell as refinery maintenance and outages kept activity low, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.
Crude inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels to 442.9 million barrels in the week ending Feb. 16, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.9 million-barrel rise.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub (USOICC=ECI), opens new tab rose by 741,000 barrels last week to 29.5 million, the EIA said.
Meanwhile, refinery crude runs (USOICR=ECI), opens new tab inched up by 31,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates (USOIRU=ECI), opens new tab were unchanged at 80.6% of total capacity in the week.
Crude and distillate prices edged up in reaction to the EIA data, while gasoline futures were flat.
"As we continue to work our way through refinery maintenance here, you're likely to continue seeing crude builds and product draws," said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst at Kpler.
Unplanned refinery outages following a winter storm in January, along with planned plant turnarounds, has kept refining near its lowest levels since late 2022.
An outage starting at the beginning of February at the 435,000-bpd Whiting facility in Indiana, the Midwest's largest refinery, has contributed to the product draws and crude builds.
"With the Whiting refinery still down, we saw another week with large product draws," said Giovanni Staunovo, analyst at UBS.
Gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI), opens new tab fell by 294,000 barrels in the week to 247 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' forecasts for a 2.1 million-barrel draw.
While the EIA reported gasoline drawdowns in the Gulf Coast, Midwest and West Coast, stocks along the East Coast rose by 1.4 million barrels to 64.37 million barrels, their highest since January 2022, data showed.
Distillate stockpiles (USOILD=ECI), opens new tab, which include diesel and heating oil, were down by 4 million barrels in the week to 121.7 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.7 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Reporting by Laila Kearney and Liz Hampton Editing by Marguerita Choy
