The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday, October 8, that U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week, while gasoline and distillate inventories fell, driven by a jump in demand.

EIA data showed that U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 3.7 million barrels to 420.3 million barrels in the week ending October 3, compared with analysts' expectations for a 1.9 million-barrel increase.

The EIA reported that crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub fell by 763,000 barrels.

Despite the larger-than-expected inventory increase, U.S. crude oil futures maintained their gains. UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo said: "I view this report as mildly positive. The negative impact of the crude oil inventory build is due to increased imports and lower crude oil exports, while the very strong implied demand has led to a sharp decline in refined product inventories."

The EIA said that U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 731,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week, while exports fell by 161,000 bpd to 3.59 million bpd.

Total supply of petroleum and fuel products, a measure of demand, increased by 1.8 million bpd to 21.99 million bpd, the highest level since December 2022. Distillate demand increased by 729,000 bpd to 4.35 million bpd.

The EIA said that U.S. gasoline inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels to 219.1 million barrels last week, compared with expectations for a decrease of 911,000 barrels. The data showed distillate fuel inventories, including diesel and heating oil, fell by 2 million barrels to 121.6 million barrels, compared with expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel decline.

The EIA said refinery runs increased by 129,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week, pushing capacity utilization up 1 percentage point to 92.4%.

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