U.S. crude stocks rise, gasoline and distillate inventories fall, EIA says

A warning placard is seen on a tank car carrying crude oil near a loading terminal in Trenton, N.D. (Matthew Brown/THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP)

U.S. crude stocks rose while gasoline and distillate inventories fell last week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels to 449.3 million barrels in the week ended March 13, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 383,000-barrel rise.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub USOICC=ECI rose by 944,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

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Oil futures remained in positive territory despite the larger-than-expected build in crude stocks. Global Brent crude futures were trading at US$109.64 a barrel, up $6.22, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures CLc1 were up $2.72 to $98.93 a barrel at 10:46 a.m. ET.

Refinery crude runs rose by 63,000 barrels per day, the EIA said, while utilization rates rose by 0.6 percentage point in the week to 91.4 per cent.

U.S. gasoline stocks fell by 5.4 million barrels in the week to 244 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 1.6 million-barrel draw.​

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.5 million barrels in the week to 116.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.5-million-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

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Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 692,000 barrels per day, the EIA said.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver and Georgina McCartney in Houston; Editing by Rod Nickel)