April 25, 2024 [Reuters]- U.S. crude oil inventories unexpectedly fell sharply last week as exports jumped, while gasoline stockpiles decreased less than forecast, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.

Crude stocks slumped by 6.4 million barrels to 453.6 million barrels in the week ended April 19, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 825,000-barrel rise.

Crude oil inventories fell following the largest weekly rise this year in exports of 453,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 5.18 million. Net U.S. crude fell by 417,000 bpd, the EIA said.

“It was all about the exports”, said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.

“You would think that would happen a lot more often because of the squeeze in the Red Sea. I always thought that would chase customers to the Gulf Coast and you’re really seeing that for the first time this year in this report,” he added.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for futures fell by 659,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

U.S. crude futures and gasoline futures briefly turned positive after the data but were trading 80 cents and 0.3% lower, respectively, by 11:10 a.m. ET (1510 GMT).

“The large crude draw was the result of very high crude exports. Assume it is seen as one off and preliminary tanker tracking data shows lower exports so far this week”, said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

Gasoline stocks fell by 600,000 barrels in the week to 226.7 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with forecasts for a 1.8 million-barrel draw.

Refinery crude runs fell by 42,000 bpd and refinery utilization rates rose by 0.4 percentage point in the week.​

Distillate stockpiles which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.6 million barrels in the week to 116.6 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1.1 million-barrel drop, the data showed.

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