US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, declined by 4.7 million barrels in the week ended July 10 following a decrease of 3.2 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks fell by 1.7 million barrels after a 3.0-million-barrel gain in the previous week, a smaller decline than the 1.8 million-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR decreased by 3.0 million in the week after falling by 6.2 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.6% from the previous week and were down 12.0% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels, smaller than the 2.0-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 0.7% from the previous week and 9.6% lower than a year earlier.
Distillate stocks rose by 4.6 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 2.0 million barrels. Distillate stocks were up 4.4% from the previous week and were 1.1% higher than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 96.2% of their capacity, up from 95.8% in the previous week.