US crude oil stocks fall, fuel inventories rise amid robust refining, EIA says

By Liz Hampton

DENVER, Jan 7 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week amid busy refining activity, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories dropped by 3.8 million barrels to 419.1 million barrels in the week ended January 2, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 447,000-barrel rise.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 728,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

Analysts pointed to year-end taxes on oil in storage as a reason for the drop in crude inventories.

Global Brent crude futures LCOc1 were trading at $60.25 a barrel, down 45 cents, at 11:06 a.m. ET (1606 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures CLc1 were down 77 cents, at $56.36 a barrel.

GULF REFINERY UTILIZATION HIGHEST SINCE 2023

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI rose by 62,000 barrels per day, the EIA said, while utilization rates USOIRU=ECI were unchanged in the week at 94.7%. Refinery utilization on the U.S. Gulf Coast was at its highest last week since June 2023.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI increased by 7.7 million barrels in the week to 242 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.2 million-barrel build, with stockpiles on the U.S. Gulf Coast at their highest since January 2020.

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, climbed by 5.6 million barrels in the week to 129.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.1 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed. Distillate fuel oil stockpiles rose last week to their highest level in a year, and inventories on the U.S. Gulf Coast jumped to their highest since August 2021.

"Products showed whopping builds due to strength in refining activity and a post-Christmas hangover in implied demand," said Matt Smith, an analyst with ship-tracking firm Kpler.

Product supplied, a proxy for demand, fell by 150,000 bpd to 19.23 million bpd last week. The four-week average for product supplied stands at 19.87 million bpd, down from 20.25 million bpd in the same period last year.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI rose last week by 563,000 barrels per day, the EIA said.