US crude oil stocks, including those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 11.0 million barrels in the week ended July 24 following a decrease of 3.0 million barrels in the previous week.
Excluding inventories in the SPR, commercial crude oil stocks fell by 7.2 million barrels after a 2.0 million barrel gain in the previous week, compared to the 1.0 million barrel increase expected in a survey compiled by Bloomberg.
Stocks in the SPR declined by 3.8 million in the week after falling by 5.1 million in the previous week.
Overall crude oil stocks were down 1.5% from the previous week and 14.1% lower than a year earlier. Crude oil inventories are about 7.0% below the five-year average for this time of the year.
Gasoline stocks were unchanged in the current week compared to a 1.1-million-barrel decrease expected and were down 7.5% from a year earlier.
Distillate stocks rose by 1.1 million barrels in the current week, compared with an expected increase of 500,000 barrels. Distillate stocks were up 1.0% from the previous week but were still 2.6% lower than in the same week a year ago.
Refineries operated at 97.2% of their capacity, up from 96.1% in the previous week.