US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 3.2 million barrels in the week ended July 3 following a decrease of 9.3 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks rose by 3.0 million barrels after a 3.8-million-barrel decline in the previous week, compared with a 1.9-million-barrel drop expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:45 am ET.
Stocks in the SPR fell by 6.2 million in the week after falling by 5.5 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.4% from the previous week and down 11.8% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks declined by 1.9 million barrels, compared with the 1.7 million barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 0.9% from the previous week, and down 7.6% from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks plunged by 5.0 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected increase of 1.1 million barrels. Distillate stocks were down 4.6% from the previous week but were still 0.8% higher than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 95.8% of their capacity, below 96.6% in the previous week.