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 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 Thursday. 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.

Crude futures were higher Thursday after the International Energy Agency said it expects 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 Nymex crude contract for February was up 1.3% at $73.53 a barrel and international benchmark Brent was up 0.8% at $78.52 a barrel.

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 WSJ survey. Gasoline inventories are slightly above the five-year average, the EIA said.

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. 


 
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 1146ET