U.S. stocks of crude oil and gasoline surprisingly rose last week as refinery runs declined and exports fell, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said June 7.
Crude inventories rose by 3.3 million barrels (bbl) in the week ended June 2, compared with expectations for a decrease of 3.5 million bbl, the first such increase in 10 weeks.
It came as refineries edged off record processing levels reached the week earlier, though U.S. refiners are still producing at a very high rate.
The data surprised analysts, and undercut the belief that inventories were finally showing steady progress toward drawing down to seasonal averages. West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell sharply, dropping more than 4% to $46.12/bbl as of 10:04 a.m. CT (15:04 GMT).
"Crude, gasoline and distillates inventories are all at or above the top of their five-year ranges; supply remains plentiful," said Matt Smith, director of commodity research at ClipperData in Louisville, Ky.
Gasoline stocks rose by 3.3 million bbl, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 580,000 bbl gain. Gasoline blendstock futures on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell about 4% after the data was released.
"Normally, gasoline stocks are supposed to decline at this time of the year due to strong demand," said Carsten Fritsch, oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, Germany.
Refinery crude runs fell by 283,000 bbl/d, EIA data showed, to 17.2 million bbl/d, from the previous week's record 17.5 million bbl/d rate. Refinery utilization rates fell by 0.9 percentage points to 94.1%, which is still seasonally strong.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla., delivery hub fell by 1.4 million bbl, the EIA said.
U.S. exports were also down sharply, though that figure tends to fluctuate on a week-to-week basis. Overall exports fell to 557,000 bbl/d from a record 1.3 million bbl/d the week previous.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 4.4 million bbl, vs. expectations for a 281,000 bbl increase, the EIA data showed.
U.S. crude imports rose last week by 1.1 million bbl/d.
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