By Anthony Harrup


U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week as imports grew, and stocks of gasoline and distillate fuels increased with refineries raising their capacity use, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 2.1 million barrels to 427.7 million barrels in the week ended Nov. 1 and were about 5% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said.

Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast crude stockpiles to be unchanged from the previous week.

Oil in in the SPR increased by 1.4 million barrels to 387.2 million barrels. Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, was up by 522,000 barrels at 25.9 million barrels. Refinery capacity use rose to 90.5% from 89.1% the previous week. Refinery runs were forecast to rise by 0.3 of a percentage point to 89.4%.

U.S. crude oil production was steady at 13.5 million barrels a day for a fourth consecutive week, according to the EIA. Crude imports rose by 265,000 barrels a day to 6.2 million barrels a day, while exports fell by 1.4 million barrels a day to 2.9 million barrels a day.

Gasoline inventories were up by 412,000 barrels at 211.3 million barrels, or 2% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline stocks were seen falling by 900,000 barrels in the Journal survey. Gasoline demand was down by 313,000 barrels a day at 8.8 million barrels a day.

Distillate fuel stocks rose by 2.9 million barrels to 115.8 million barrels following six straight weeks of declines, and were about 6% below the five-year average. Distillate stocks were projected to fall by 300,000 barrels. 


 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Nov. 1: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:           2.1           0.4            2.9                  1.4 
Forecast:          unch          -0.9           -0.3                  0.3

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.


Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

11-06-24 1112ET