(adds analyst comments)
By Liz Moyer
Investing.com -- U.S. oil stockpiles fell more than double the amount expected in the latest week, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.
Crude inventories fell 5.08 million barrels last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a draw of 2.443 million barrels.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 3.72 million barrels in the week against expectations for a draw of 1.479 million barrels, the EIA data showed.
Refinery crude runs were 358,000 barrels. The weekly refinery utilization rate rose 1.7%, according to the EIA report.
Gasoline inventories rose 1.5 million barrels last week the EIA said, compared with expectations for a draw of 1.479 million barrels.
"It’s a slightly mixed bag, this EIA dataset," said Investing.com analyst Barani Krishnan. "The gasoline build of 1.5 million barrels would have almost certainly disappointed bulls expecting a drawdown in similar amounts,"
The cut-off for this period of EIA reporting was Friday, before the three-day break for Monday’s Memorial Day.
"So, the bigger gasoline draw that we were all anticipating could actually emerge in next week’s EIA numbers," he said. "Nevertheless, we have a build in this dataset that seems to have deflated slightly the pumped-up environment the bulls had been living in since last week."
"All things being equal, we might have gotten another rise today, if not for the fact that both WTI and Brent have accumulated so much froth over the past week and today is generally a risk-off day across markets despite the continuous drop in U.S. jobless numbers."
And while implied demand for gasoline itself was a robust 9.15 million barrels for the week, the refinery utilization rate remained below the key 90% level, which was crucial for this time of year, Krishnan said.
"U.S. crude exports cratered quite a bit too, falling almost one million barrels daily to 2.5 million bpd. So, this a mixed bag for sure."