By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- U.S. oil stockpiles fell more than expected in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude oil inventories fell 7.99 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of 2.346 million barrels.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell 2.896 million barrels in the week against expectations for a draw of 1.12 million barrels, the EIA data showed.
Refinery crude runs were 225,000 barrels. The weekly refinery utilization rate rose 1.1%, according to the EIA report.
Gasoline inventories rose 737,000 barrels last week the EIA said, compared with expectations for a draw of 652,000 barrels.
"It’s a record blow out of exports at north of 4.1 million barrels per day versus the previous week’s 2.5 million. Also, imports cratered by 1.2 million barrels per day to reach only 5.5 million bpd last week. Between those two matrices, you have your 8 million barrel drawdown," said Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan. "Distillates were another bullish story with a draw of nearly 3 million barrels."
The only bearish element was the gasoline build, which at above 700,000 was totally opposite to the drawdown expected, Krishnan said.
"Production of U.S. crude, meanwhile, remains anemic at 10.9 million barrels per day as the Permian basin appears woefully unable to catch up at least for now with the demand seen for U.S. crude exports," Krishnan said. "This ties in with the mid-April story that nearly half of all oil pipelines from the Permian are expected to be empty by the end of the year."