Corrects date in third para to Dec. 19 instead of Feb. 19
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks posted a surprise drop last week, government data showed on Wednesday, and analysts cited higher refinery operations and disruptions to imports due to fog on the Gulf Coast.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) report also showed another build in crude inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, which logged a 1.2 million barrel build week to a record 28.7 million barrels. This followed a 4.7 million barrel build the prior week at the NYMEX delivery point for physical barrels.
Total commercial stockpiles of crude oil inventories in the United States decreased by 3.1 million barrels to 318.2 million in the week to December 19, compared with average analysts' estimates for a build of 400,0000 barrels.
Crude oil imports fell 555,000 barrels per day last week.
"It is definitely bearish. It might have been even a more bearish report if it weren't for the fact that we had some weather issues down in the Gulf affecting imports," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.
"I think winter is playing havoc, not in the sense of using more heating oil but slowing down imports," Flynn added.
Refinery utilization unexpectedly rose 0.6 percentage point to 84.7 percent of capacity compared with projections for a 0.1 percentage point fall.
Stockpiles of distillate fuels rose 1.8 million barrels to 135.3 million and gasoline inventories rose 3.3 million barrels to 207.3 million, the EIA added in its report.
The distillates and gasoline builds by far topped forecasts of gains of 200,000 barrels and 500,000 barrels, respectively.
Stocks of heating oil, however, were off 700,000 barrels to 41.2 million barrels, amid colder temperatures in much of the nation, including the key consuming region in the Northeast.
But with consumer demand for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel still weak overall, total U.S. product demand logged a 4.2-percent fall from a year ago to reach 19.79 million barrels per day over the past four weeks.
"This build in products (and) draw in total crude supply (is) partially related to the fact that refinery activity increased by 0.6 percent of capacity rather than declining ..." said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates.
"Further reinforcement to our bearish case was provided by another build in Cushing crude stocks of 1.2 million barrels to a record level," he said. "All in all, there is nothing in this report that would even remotely alter our near term bearish view."
(Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by David Gregorio)
