US crude stocks fall more than expected, gasoline inventories rise

Stockpiles of US crude fell more than expected last week even as gasoline stockpiles unexpectedly rose.

Inventories of US crude declined by 2.75m barrels to 462.2m barrels, in the week ended October 6, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday. That was a sharper draw than the 2m that analysts had forecast and marked the third consecutive weekly drop in crude stocks.

US crude imports averaged more than 7.6m barrels per day last week, up by 403,000 barrels from the previous week. And weekly exports slid to 1.27m bpd, from 1.98m bpd the previous week.

Meanwhile, stocks of gasoline, one of the products that crude is refined into, swelled by 2.49m barrels, against expectations for a declined of 480,000 barrels.

Oil trimmed its losses after the data. Ahead of the release, West Texas Intermediate, the US crude marker, was down 1.6 per cent to $50.52 a barrel, while, Brent, its international counterpart, was off 1.5 per cent to $56.10 a barrel.

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