By Anthony Harrup

U.S. crude oil inventories fell more than expected last week as production and refinery runs dropped amid severe winter weather across much of the U.S., according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude-oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve fell by 9.2 million barrels to 420.7 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 19, and were about 5% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted crude stockpiles would fall by 1.4 million barrels.

Storage in the SPR rose by 920,000 barrels to 356.5 million barrels, the EIA said.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, fell by 2 million barrels to 30.1 million. Refineries reduced their capacity use to 85.5% from 92.6% the week before. Expectations were for refinery runs to be down by 0.6 percentage point from the previous week.

Crude futures were higher Wednesday, with West Texas Intermediate for March delivery up 0.9% at $75.05 a barrel and international benchmark Brent 0.6% higher at $80.06 a barrel.

U.S. gasoline stockpiles rose by 4.9 million barrels to 253 million barrels against expectations of a 1.5 million-barrel build. Gasoline inventories are about 1% above the five-year average, the EIA said.

Distillate stocks, mostly diesel fuel, were down by 1.4 million barrels at 133.3 million barrels and were 4% below the five-year average. Expectations were for distillates inventories to decline by 700,000 barrels.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended Jan. 19: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates         Refinery Use 
EIA data:          -9.2           4.9           -1.4                 -7.1 
Forecast:          -1.4           1.5           -0.7                 -0.6 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 24, 2024 11:06 ET (16:06 GMT)