US crude stocks rise to near 3-year high, fuel inventories fall on record high exports, EIA

By Liz Hampton and Georgina McCartney

DENVER, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks rose to their highest level since June 2023 last year, while fuel inventories fell last week as international demand picked up, driving product exports to a record high, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories rose by 5.5 million barrels to 461.6 million barrels in the week ended March 27, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 814,000-barrel rise.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 520,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said, their highest since July 2024.

Oil futures remained in negative territory following the larger-than-expected build in stocks. Global Brent futures LCOc1 were trading at $101.27 a barrel, off $2.70 at 10:46 a.m. ET (1446 GMT), while U.S. West Texas Intermediate CLc1 futures were at $98.96 a barrel, down $2.42 at that time.

"At least here on this side of the pond we are not worried about crude supplies, we are very well supplied putting downward pressure on prices," said Phil Flynn, an analyst with Price Futures Group.

Refinery crude runs USOICR=ECI fell by 219,000 barrels per day, while utilization rates USOIRU=ECI fell by 0.8 percentage points in the week to 92.1%, the EIA said.

Distillate stockpiles USOILD=ECI, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.1 million barrels in the week to 117.8 million barrels, versus expectations for a 0.6 million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Distillate exports jumped by 226,000 bpd to 1.41 million bpd last week and were well above the 2026 four-week average of 1.22 million bpd.

"That is part of the global scramble, I think we may start to see that in terms of a call on our domestic supplies by other counties," said John Kilduff, a partner at Again Capital.

Weekly exports of total petroleum products rose last week to their highest on record, while net imports hit their lowest level since November 2024, the EIA said.

Total product supplied, a proxy for demand, rose by 917,000 bpd to 20.92 million bpd, with distillate demand climbing 471,000 bpd to 4.04 million bpd.

U.S. gasoline stocks USOILG=ECI fell by 586,000 barrels in the week to 240.9 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.9 million-barrel draw.​

Net U.S. crude imports USOICI=ECI fell last week by 209,000 barrels per day, EIA said, while exports rose 199,000 bpd to 3.5 million bpd.