Investing.com -- U.S. crude inventories rose more than expected in the latest week the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose 501,000 barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a 294,000-barrel increase.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 962,000 barrels in the week against expectations for a 995,000 barrel drop, the EIA data showed.
Refinery crude runs rose 183,000 barrels in the last week, EIA said.
The weekly refinery utilization rate rose 1.3%, according to the report.
U.S. gasoline inventories fell 1.4 million barrels last week, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a 471,000-barrel draw.
Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan said, “At a glance, the headline crude build number of 500,000 barrels and higher-than-thought gasoline stockpile draw might suggest this isn’t a bad report. Yet, if you look at the production and export estimates, we can see why people need to be worried. Production is estimated to be back at 11 million barrels daily, up 300,000 since the previous week. And exports are down almost a whopping million barrels a day, at 2.66 million barrels. And the Strategic Petroleum Reserve saw an outflow of 1.2 million barrels last week. Without that, the crude build ought to have been larger.”