Weekly US oil inventories fall less than expected, DoE says

US crude oil stockpiles fell last week despite a rise in imports last week, as refineries increased their runs, boosting prices for crude oil futures.

During the week ending 28 July, US commercial crude oil inventories decreased by 1.5m barrels from the previous week to reach 481.9m barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy´s statistical arm.

In parallel, gasoline stockpiles decreased by 2.5m barrels last week but remained in the upper half of the average range, while those of distillates decreased by 0.2m barrels.

Imports averaged 8.3m barrels per day during the reference week, which was up by 209,000 barrels per day from the previous week.

Meanwhile, refineries operated at 95.4% of their capacity.

Analysts had anticipated a 3.0m b/d drop in crude oil inventories.

"We expect refinery runs to remain high in the coming weeks. This should lead to a sharp drawdown in inventories and help the market to rebalance.

"The drawdown in gasoline stocks last week was driven by record demand for the motor fuel. That said, demand was only 1% higher than at this time last year. Indeed, the growth of gasoline consumption has been weak so far in 2017," said Joseph Oyegoke at Capital Economics.

As of 16:48 BST front month Brent crude oil futures were rising by 0.7% to $52.14 per barrel on the ICE.