Commercial stockpiles of crude oil in the United States fell 8.8 million barrels to 311.6 million barrels in the week ended May 23, the EIA said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected the numbers to show crude inventories were unchanged from the prior week.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil supplies sank unexpectedly last week as imports slid and demand from domestic refiners rose, a federal Energy Information Administration report on Thursday showed.
Commercial stockpiles of crude oil in the United States fell 8.8 million barrels to 311.6 million barrels in the week ended May 23, the EIA said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected the numbers to show crude inventories were unchanged from the prior week.
The drop came as imports fell by 278,000 barrels per day to 8.96 million bpd, and demand for crude from refiners rose 214,000 bpd to 15.3 million bpd, according to the report which was issued a day late due to Monday's Memorial Day holiday.
The EIA report also showed gasoline inventories fell 3.2 million barrels to 206.2 million barrels last week, by far eclipsing analysts' expectations for supplies to have decreased by 200,000 barrels on average.
!ADVERTISEMENT!Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.6 million barrels to 109.4 million barrels. The build topped the expected increase of 800,000 barrels.
U.S. refinery utilization was unchanged at 87.9 percent last week, versus market expectations that utilization rates rose by 0.5 percentage point.
(Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by John Picinich)
