US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 400,000 barrels in the week ended July 31 following a decrease of 11.0 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks rose by 2.5 million barrels after a 7.2-million-barrel decline in the previous week, compared with the 1.5-million-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg as of 7:35 am ET.
Stocks in the SPR decreased by 2.8 million barrels in the week after falling by 3.8 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.1% from the previous week and down 13.9% 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 1.6 million barrels, compared with the 1.5-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 0.8% from the previous week, and down 7.7% from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks decreased by 3.5 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected increase of 419,000 barrels. Distillate stocks were down 3.1% from the previous week and were 5.1% lower than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 96.5% of their capacity, down from 97.2% in the previous week.