U.S. crude inventories rose last week while gasoline and distillate stocks declined, the Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday. Crude stocks increased by 5.5 million barrels to 461.6 million, far above analyst expectations for an 814,000-barrel rise.
At the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub, inventories were up 520,000 barrels. Refinery crude runs fell by 219,000 barrels per day, and utilization rates slipped by 0.8 percentage points for the week ended March 27, the EIA said.
