US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 900,000 barrels in the week ended Aug. 14 following an increase of 11.3 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks increased by 4.4 million barrels after a 17.4-million-barrel gain in the previous week, a smaller increase than the 200,000-barrel increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR fell by 5.3 million in the week after falling by 6.1 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.1% from the previous week and were 12.4% lower than a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are matching the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks increased by 700,000 million barrels, compared to the 1.5-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were up 0.3% from the previous week, but down 6.3% from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks fell by 1.5 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected decrease of 900,000 barrels. Distillate stocks were down 1.4% from the previous week and were 9.0% lower than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 97.2% of their capacity, down from 96.2% in the previous week.