US crude stocks fall, gasoline and distillate inventories rise, EIA says

HOUSTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks fell while gasoline and distillate inventories rose last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 959,000 barrels to 414.6 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 3, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 184,000-barrel draw.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI fell by 2.5 million barrels.

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI rose by 45,000 barrels per day, the EIA said.

Refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI rose by 0.6 percentage points in the week to 93.3%.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 6.3 million barrels in the week to 237.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1.5 million-barrel build.​

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 6.1 million barrels in the week to 128.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 600,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI rose last week by 278,000 barrels per day, EIA said.

Weekly crude exports fell 776,000 barrels per day to 3.08 million barrels per day.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston)

((Georgina.McCartney@thomsonreuters.com;))