Baghdad: The US Energy Information Administration: announced on Wednesday a sharp decline in US crude oil inventories last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose. In its weekly report, the EIA stated that “crude oil inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels to 404.5 million barrels in the week ending July 24,” noting that “this decline exceeded analysts’ expectations, which had predicted a decrease of only 1.3 million barrels.”

According to Iraqi News Agency, the report added that “crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub decreased by 771,000 barrels during the same period.”

Estimates indicated that “refinery crude oil consumption increased by 271,000 barrels per day,” adding that “the refinery utilization rate rose by 1.1 percentage points to reach 97.2 percent efficiency.”

Regarding petroleum products, the data showed that “gasoline inventories rose slightly by 7,000 barrels to settle at 211.3 million barrels, contrary to expectations of a 715,000-barrel decrease. Distillate fuel inventories (which include diesel and heating oil) also increased by 1.1 million barrels to reach 110.6 million barrels, compared to previous expectations of a 146,000-barrel increase.”

The report concluded by noting that “net U.S. crude oil imports fell by 237,000 barrels per day last week.”