US oil stocks rise moderately in latest week, EIA says

US oil stocks rose moderately last week, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil stocks rose by 1.5m barrels a day over the week ending on 24 February, the EIA said.

In parallel, gasoline inventories decreased by 0.5m barrels and those for distillate fuels by another 0.9m.

Refineries operated at 86.0% of their capacity during the latest reference week, with imports rising by 303,000 barrels per day from the prior week.

As of 1839 GMT, front month West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures were down 0.26% to $53.87 a barrel on the ICE.