U.S. crude and gasoline inventories rose as demand softened, while distillate stockpiles fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels to 460.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.9-million-barrel draw.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 226,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.
Oil prices dipped following the surprise build. Brent futures were trading at $84.96 a barrel, down about 5 cents, at 1501 GMT. WTI futures were trading at $80.63 a barrel, off 22 cents.
Refinery crude runs fell by 233,000 barrels per day, while utilization rates fell by 1.3 percentage points in the week to 92.2 per cent.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 2.7 million barrels in the week to 233.9 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1 million-barrel draw.
Product supplied for motor gasoline, a proxy for demand, fell by about 417,000 bpd last week, to 8.97 million bpd. The four-week average for demand is about 2 per cent under last year’s levels.
“At the same time we saw crude and refined products build, we saw refiners cut back on utilization a little bit, which was a bit of a surprise,” said Andy Lipow of Lipow Oil Associates in Houston.
“This may be indicative of the impact of weakening gasoline markets that have occurred of the last couple of weeks,” he added.
Gasoline futures turned negative following an unexpected build.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 377,000 barrels in the week to 121.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 259,000 barrel drop, the EIA data showed. Distillate product supplied declined by 441,000 bpd week-over-week to 3.54 bpd.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 65,000 barrels per day, while exports were down 508,000 bpd to 3.91 million bpd.
“A drop in exports due to tropical activity in the Gulf of Mexico last week, combined with lower refinery runs, encouraged a third crude inventory build in four weeks,” said Matt Smith, head analyst for ship-tracking firm Kpler.