EIA: US Crude Inventories Declined And Fuel Surged Last Week

US inventories of crude oil decreased while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, the US Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

Crude stocks fell by 679,000 barrels over the week ending November 27 to 488 million barrels, while analysts in a Reuters poll expected a drop of 2.4 million barrels.

Crude stocks fell at the delivery point in Cushing, Oklahoma, by 317,000 barrels last week.

Crude consumption by refineries decreased by 251,000 barrels per day over the course of the week. The rate of utilization of the production capacity of the refineries decreased by 0.5 percentage points.

US gasoline inventories grew 3.5 million barrels to 233.6 million barrels, while analysts in a Reuters poll expected a rise of 2.4 million barrels.

Distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 3.2 million barrels to 145.9 million barrels, while they were expected to decrease by 209 thousand barrels.

Net US crude imports fell 454,000 bpd last week, according to the Energy Information Administration.