UPDATE 2-US Crude oil stocks excluding SPR fall to 2-year low, EIA says

Recasts throughout

By Georgina McCartney and Arathy Somasekhar

HOUSTON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell last week to their lowest since April 2022 as exports rose and imports fell, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 2 million barrels to 412.7 million barrels in the week ending Jan. 10, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 992,000-barrel draw.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI fell by 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), EIA said, to 2.05 million bpd. And weekly crude exports were up 1 million bpd to 4.08 million bpd.

"The crude oil draw was largely on import-export dynamics," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho

"The exports are hard to believe, since the WTI/Brent spread was stronger than $3.50 a barrel and all of this happened before the Biden administration's sanctions on Russia," he added.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 765,000 barrels.

"The Cushing build should help with the extreme backwardation. Grim situation but less grim than last week." said Mizuho's Yawger.

Brent, U.S. crude futures pared gains despite the larger-than-expected draw in crude stocks.

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 255,000 bpd in the week, the EIA said.

Refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 1.6 percentage points 91.7%.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI rose by 5.9 million barrels in the week to 243.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 2 million-barrel build.

U.S. gasoline futures pared gains after the larger-than-expected build in gasoline stocks.

Gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, fell to 8.33 million bpd last week, down from 8.48 million bpd. ​

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.1 million barrels to 132 million barrels, their highest since January 2024 and surpassing expectations for an 800,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

U.S. heating oil futures extended gains despite the larger-than-expected build in distillate stocks.

"A bullish oil draw, a bearish products build, overall looks pretty good for oil bulls considering seasonality," said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests.

"It is not surprising oil has recovered from the high $60s to the high $70s over the past few weeks. Unless some new supply comes on, or demand falls a lot, prices could be a lot higher this summer," he added.

(Reporting by Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

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