By Anthony Harrup


U.S. crude oil stocks rose for a fourth straight week, increasing more than expected while refineries reduced their capacity use last week, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose by 2.7 million barrels to 460 million barrels in the week ended April 12 and were about 1% 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 increase by 600,000 barrels.

The U.S. government continued refilling the SPR, adding 648,000 barrels to bring storage to 364.9 million barrels, the EIA said.

Crude stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, was up by 33,000 barrels at 33 million barrels. Refinery capacity use slipped by 0.2 percentage point to 88.1%, compared with a 0.6 percentage-point increase foreseen in the Journal survey.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels to 227.4 million barrels, and were 4% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline stocks were forecast to have fallen by 1 million barrels. Gasoline demand was 50,000 barrels a day higher than the previous week at 8.7 million barrels a day.

Stocks of distillate fuel, mostly diesel, fell by 2.8 million barrels to 115 million barrels as demand rose, and were about 7% below the five-year average, according to the EIA. Distillate stocks were foreseen falling by 400,000 barrels.

The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.1 million barrels a day, unchanged from the previous week. Crude imports were up slightly at 6.5 million barrels a day, and crude oil exports increased by 2 million barrels a day to 4.7 million barrels a day.

Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended April 12: 


 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:           2.7          -1.2           -2.8                 -0.2 
Forecast:           0.6          -1.0           -0.4                  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

04-17-24 1135ET