US crude stockpiles rise as refineries begin maintenance, EIA says
By Arathy Somasekhar and Georgina McCartney
HOUSTON, Sept 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week as refineries headed into maintenance season, while gasoline stocks fell ahead of the long Labor Day weekend, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Thursday.
Crude inventories rose by 2.4 million barrels to 420.7 million barrels in the week ended August 29, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2 million-barrel draw.
"This is a little bit of a bearish report with that crude build," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital, adding that crude stocks would face pressure from refineries dialing back for autumn maintenance.
U.S. oil prices held steady after the data, trading down 0.6% around $63.63 at 12:37 p.m. ET (1637 GMT). Brent crude prices were 0.5% lower at $67.14.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 1.6 million barrels last week, the EIA said.
Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI rose last week by 434,000 barrels per day (bpd), data showed, while onshore production edged down to around 13.4 million bpd in the last week of August, the data showed.
Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 11,000 bpd, and refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI declined 0.3 percentage points in the week to 94.3%.
Gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 3.8 million barrels in the week to 218.5 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a 1.1 million-barrel draw.
Product supplied of gasoline, a proxy for demand, eased to 9.1 million bpd, but was above the level of 9 million bpd that analysts consider a strong demand signal for the summer driving season.
"Demand for gasoline was pretty good as we went into Labor Day holiday, certainly not setting record levels but for this year it wasn't bad," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.
Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.7 million barrels in the week to 115.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 600,000-barrel drop, the data showed.
U.S. oil product supplied over the past four weeks rose to 21.3 million bpd, the highest amount since March 2022, the data showed.
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