-- US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, declined by 5.1 million barrels in the week ended April 10 following an increase of 1.3 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks fell by 900,000 barrels after a 3.1-million-barrel increase in the previous week, compared with the 1.9-million-barrel increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR declined by 4.1 million barrels in the week after falling by 1.7 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.6% from the previous week but were still up 3.9% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 1% above the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks fell by 6.3 million barrels, larger than the 2.0-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were down 2.6% from the previous week, and 0.5% lower from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 2.1 million barrels. Distillate stocks were down 2.7% from the previous week but were still 2.1% higher than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 89.6% of their capacity, down from 92.0% in the previous week.