By Anthony Harrup


U.S. crude-oil inventories fell more than expected last week, while stocks of gasoline and diesel continued to rise, according to data released Thursday by the Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude-oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 2.5 million barrels to 429.9 million barrels, in the week ended Jan. 12, and were about 3% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 900,000 barrels.

Storage in the SPR rose by 596,000 barrels to 355.6 million barrels, the EIA said.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, fell by 2.1 million barrels to 32.1 million barrels.

Refineries reduced their capacity use to 92.6% from 92.9% the week before. Expectations were for refinery runs to fall by 0.6 percentage point.

U.S. crude-oil production rose by 100,000 barrels a day to 13.3 million barrels a day, while imports were up 1.2 million barrels a day at 7.42 million barrels a day and exports increased by 1.7 million barrels a day to little over 5 million barrels a day, the EIA said.

Crude futures extended gains following the inventories report, with West Texas Intermediate for February delivery up 2.1% at $74.10 a barrel, and the March contract for international benchmark Brent up 1.5% at $79.07 a barrel.

Earlier Thursday, the International Energy Agency said it expects global oil demand to grow by 1.2 million barrels a day this year, up from 1.1 million barrels a day forecast in its December report but less than the 1.5 million barrels-a-day increase it sees for this year's oil supply.

The drop in crude-oil inventories after the American Petroleum Institute on Wednesday had reported a build for last week "caught traders off balance," said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president at BOK Financial. The draw on crude stocks at Cushing was positive for oil, while builds in product inventories are expected at this time of year and "not really that negative to the market," he added.

U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.1 million barrels last week to 248.1 million against expectations of a 2.5 million-barrel build in the Journal survey. Gasoline inventories are slightly above the five-year average, the EIA said.

Gasoline production fell by 291,000 barrels a day to 9.4 million barrels a day, while gasoline demand was steady at 8.3 million barrels a day.

Distillate stocks, mostly diesel fuel, increased by 2.4 million barrels to 134.8 million barrels and are around 3% below the five-year average. Expectations were for a distillate stock build of 600,000 barrels. Demand for distillate fuels rose by 213,000 barrels a day to 3.6 million barrels a day, while production fell by 265,000 barrels a day to 4.9 million barrels a day. 


 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 12: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:          -2.5           3.1            2.4                 -0.3 
Forecast:          -0.9           2.5            0.6                 -0.6

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.


Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-18-24 1250ET