US crude oil and product stockpiles drop, DoE says

US crude oil and product stockpiles were run down further during the latest reference week amid another drop in imports.

During the week ending on 27 October, commercial crude oil inventories shrank by 2.4m barrels from the previous week to reach 454.9m barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy's statistical arm.

In parallel, imports dropped by 552,000 b/d to average roughly 7.6m b/d, the EIA said.

Acting as a partial offset, domestic US oil output rose by another 46,000 barrel a day to 9.55m b/d.

Meanwhile, gasoline inventories were drawn down by 4.0m barrels last week while those of distillates dipped by 0.3m barrels.

The rate of refinery operating use was little changed at 88.1%, up from 87.8% in the week before.

As of 15:28 GMT, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were 0.51% lower at $54.66 a barrel on the ICE.