US crude and fuel inventories fall, Nigerian crude imports jump, EIA says

By Liz Hampton and Georgina McCartney

DENVER, May 29 (Reuters) - U.S. crude and fuel inventories all fell last week, while crude imports from Nigeria hit their highest level in nearly six years, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.

Crude inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels to 440.4 million barrels in the week ending May 23, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 118,000-barrel rise.

U.S. crude exports rose during the week by 794,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 4.3 million bpd, helping push inventories lower.

"I found it a supportive report, with higher US.. crude exports resulting in a crude draw," said Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst at UBS.

"Pumping stations demanding more gasoline and diesel last week ahead of the Memorial Day resulted in higher implied demand and draws for gasoline and distillates," he added, referring to a U.S. holiday this week.

Oil prices rose slightly after the EIA reported a surprise draw in stockpiles, but were still trading in negative territory. Global Brent crude futures were off 56 cents to $64.34 a barrel LCOc1 at 12:11 p.m. EDT (1611 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were down 65 cents to $61.20 a barrel CLc1.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 75,000 barrels, the EIA said.

Crude imports from Nigeria rose by 358,000 bpd to 364,000 bpd, marking the highest import figure from the African nation since October 2019. The jump in imports comes as Nigeria's 650,000 bpd Dangote refinery has faced an unplanned outage from April 7 to May 11.

U.S. refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 162,000 barrels per day in the week, while utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 0.5 percentage points in the week to 90.2%, the EIA said.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 2.4 million barrels in the week to 223.1 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 527,000-barrel draw.

Gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, rose last week to 9.45 million bpd, up from 8.64 million bpd the prior week. ​

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 724,000 barrels in the week to 103.4 million barrels, versus expectations for a 481,000-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

U.S. distillate fuel oil stocks fell to their lowest last week since April 2005, while inventories in the U.S. Midwest were at their lowest since November 2017.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI fell last week by 532,000 bpd to 2.05 million bpd, EIA said.