-- US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 13.4 million barrels in the week ended April 24 following a decrease of 2.2 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks decreased by 6.2 million-barrels after a 1.9-million-barrel increase in the previous week, more than the 190,000 barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR also fell by 7.1 million in the week after falling by 4.1 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 1.5% from the previous week but were still up 2.2% from a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 1% higher than the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks decreased by 6.1 million barrels, more than the 2.8 million barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were 2.7% lower from the previous week, and 1.4% down from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks fell by 4.5 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 2.2 million barrels. Distillate stocks were 4.2% less than in the previous week and 3.9% lower than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 89.6% of their capacity, slightly higher than the 89.1% rate in the previous week.