US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 3.0 million barrels in the week ended July 17 following a decrease of 4.7 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks rose by 2.0 million barrels after a 1.7-million-barrel drop in the previous week, compared with the 2.0-million-barrel decrease expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR fell by 5.1 million in the week after falling by 3.0 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 0.4% from the previous week and 12.0% less than a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 6% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks rose by 800,000 barrels, compared with the 1.9-million-barrel decrease expected. Gasoline stocks were up 0.4% from the previous week, but down 8.6% from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks rose by 1.4 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected increase of 0.8 million barrels. Distillate stocks were up 1.3% from the previous week but were still 0.3% lower than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 96.1% of their capacity, down from 96.2% in the previous week.