U.S. crude stockpiles dip, gasoline builds as demand slackens
(Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles edged lower last week but gasoline inventories posted a larger-than-expected build on weakened demand, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 446,000 barrels in the week to July 15 to 426.6 MM barrels, compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 MM-barrel rise.
Demand figures rebounded from the previous week's sharp fall, and product supplied rose to 21 MMbpd. However, gasoline demand continued to sag, and supply of that product over the last four weeks was 8.7 MMbpd, or about 7.6% lower than the same time a year ago.
"You don't really don't want to be going backwards on gasoline in the middle of the summer," said Robert Yawger, executive director of energy futures at Mizuho.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 3.5 MM barrels in the week to 228.4 MM barrels, compared with expectations for a 71,000-barrel rise.
"The demand destruction is only still two weeks but sufficient to say it’s there. That's the big takeaway," said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.
Oil prices were lower on the data. U.S. crude lost 1.8% to $102.35 a barrel while Brent dropped 1.1% to $106.09 a barrel.
Refinery crude runs fell by 321,000 bpd in the last week, EIA said. Refinery utilization rates fell by 1.2 percentage points in the week, but refiners are still running at 93.7% of overall capacity.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 MM barrels.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 1.1 MM barrels last week, EIA said.
Net U.S. imports of crude were down sharply week, falling by 891,000 bpd, a move almost entirely attributed to a surge in crude exports to 3.8 MMbpd.
(Reporting By David Gaffen Editing by Marguerita Choy)
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