(Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories were forecast to have fallen for the third consecutive week, while analysts expected a build in refined products last week, a preliminary Reuters poll showed on Monday.
Six analysts polled ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API), an industry group, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated, on average, that crude stocks fell 2.5 million barrels in the week to Dec. 14.
Crude inventories
The API is scheduled to release its data for the latest week at 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday, and the weekly EIA report is due at 10:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday.
Analysts estimated that stockpiles of gasoline
Distillate inventories
The rate of refinery utilization
All figures for fuel stocks in millions of barrels; refinery runs change measured in percentage points:
Organization Crude Distillates Gasoline Refinery
Runs
Citi Futures -4.0 1.0 1.5 1.0
Confluence -1.5 -1.0 1.5 0.0
Commodity Research Group -4.3 1.3 -0.5 -0.4
EMI DTN -3.4 -2.0 -2.0 1.1
Ritterbusch Associates -1.0 1.0 1.6 -0.4
Stratas Advisors -0.6 0.6 2.2 0.4