US crude stockpiles rise, fuel inventories fall, EIA says

The Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude stockpiles increased while gasoline and distillate stocks fell.

The EIA reported that crude inventories increased by 3.7 millions barrels, to 420.3million barrels for the week ending October 3. This was a far cry from the 1.9 million barrels analysts had predicted in a recent poll.

The EIA reported that crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma's delivery hub, fell by 763,000 barges in a week.

The U.S. crude futures remained positive despite the higher-than-expected increase in inventories. Brent futures, the global benchmark, were trading at $65.87 per barrel at 10:39 am EDT (1439 GMT) and were up 42 cents. U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), on the other hand was up 27 cents to $62.20.

The EIA reported that refinery crude runs increased by 129,000 barrels a day last week. Utilization rates also rose by one percentage point, to 92.4%.

The EIA reported that gasoline stocks dropped by 1.6m barrels last week, to 219.1m barrels. This was compared to expectations of a 911,000 barrel draw.

The data revealed that distillate stocks, which includes diesel and heating oil fell by 2,000,000 barrels last week, as opposed to the expected 1.2,000,000 barrel drop.

The EIA reported that net U.S. crude exports increased by 731,000 barrels per day last week. (Reporting and editing by Margueritachoy in Denver, Liz Hampton reporting from Denver)

(source: Reuters)