Official data showed, on Wednesday, a decline close to expectations in crude oil and gasoline stocks in the United States of America, while distillate stocks increased.
And the US Energy Information Administration (governmental), in a statement, said that US commercial crude oil stocks fell by one million barrels to 419.8 million barrels in the week ending May 20.
The drop came slightly more than analysts’ expectations for a 737 thousand barrel drop.
US gasoline inventories also decreased by 500,000 barrels last week, while analysts expected a decrease of 634,000 barrels.
While the Energy Information Administration reported that US stocks of distillates, which include diesel, heating fuel and jet fuel, increased by 1.7 million barrels last week, nearly twice the analysts’ estimates, who had expected a rise of only 917,000 barrels.
The data showed that the average consumption of crude oil by US refineries amounted to 16.3 million barrels per day during the past week, an increase of 334,000 barrels from the daily average of the previous week.
US imports of crude oil averaged 6.5 million barrels per day last week, down 82,000 barrels per day compared to the previous week.
