U.S. crude stocks plunged the most in more than 14 months last week as fewer imports and higher refining rates slashed inventories, according to a weekly report from the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Domestic crude stocks fell unexpectedly by a sharp 7.29 million barrels to 357.6 million barrels in the week to Nov. 12 while crude imports fell 226,000 barrels per day to 7.83 million bpd, the data showed. The weekly drawdown was the largest since August 2009.
Analysts polled by Reuters had expected crude stocks to rise by 100,000 barrels. Stocks of oil products also fell, although more closely in line with analyst expectations. Gasoline fell by 2.66 million barrels to 207.68 million barrels, versus expectations for a smaller 800,000-barrel draw.
Distillate stocks were down 1.11 million barrels at 158.79 million barrels, compared with analyst expectations for a bigger 2.2-million-barrel draw. Refinery utilization rose 1.6 percentage points to 84 percent, against analyst expectations for a 0.3-percentage-point increase. Crude runs rose 217,000 bpd to 14.28 million bpd.
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