US crude stocks climb more than expected as refinery crude runs decline, EIA says

By Arathy Somasekhar and Georgina McCartney

HOUSTON, Oct 16 (Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks rose more than expected last week as refining crude runs dropped sharply to their lowest in more than a year and a half, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Thursday.

Crude inventories increased by 3.5 million barrels to 423.8 million barrels in the week ended October 10, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 288,000-barrel rise.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI fell by 703,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI, the volume of crude processed by refineries, dropped by 1.2 million barrels per day to 14.7 million bpd, the lowest since February 2024, the EIA said.

Refinery utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 6.7 percentage points in the week to 85.7%, the lowest since the week of February 14.

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI fell by 1.75 million bpd to 1.06 million bpd, EIA said.

"This week, we saw the impact of refinery maintenance by the significant decline in utilization. This has led to an increase in crude inventories and a decrease in refined product inventories," said Andrew Lipow, president of consultancy Lipow Oil Associates.

U.S. and Brent crude tumbled after the data also showed a rise in U.S. production to 13.636 million bpd, the highest on record.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 was down 45 cents at $57.81 at 12:47 p.m. EDT (1648 GMT), while Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down 52 cents at $61.39 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline futures RBc1 also extended losses following the data. They traded down 1.3% at $1.81 per gallon, while U.S. heating oil futures HOc1 were last down 0.45% at $2.17 per gallon.

U.S. distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 4.5 million barrels in the week to 117 million barrels, versus expectations for a 294,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Product supplied of distillate fuel oil, a proxy for demand, eased 113,000 bpd to 4.23 million bpd. Gasoline supplied also eased, by 464,000 bpd to 8.45 million bpd.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI dropped by 267,000 barrels in the week to 218.8 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 75,000-barrel draw.

"A modestly bearish report, with a large crude build being offset by a large distillate draw, but with implied oil demand considerably weaker than last week," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.