By Anthony Harrup

U.S. crude oil inventories rose for a fourth consecutive week amid higher net imports, while refineries ramped up their capacity use, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Commercial crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve increased by 244,000 barrels to 443.1 million barrels in the week ended April 18 and were about 5% below the five-year average for the time of year, the EIA said. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a 600,000 barrel increase in crude stockpiles.

Oil stored in the SPR rose by 468,000 barrels to 397.5 million barrels. Oil stocks at Cushing, Okla., the Nymex delivery hub, were down by 86,000 barrels at 25 million barrels.

The EIA estimated U.S. crude oil production at 13.46 million barrels a day. Crude oil imports fell by 412,000 barrels a day to 5.6 million barrels a day, and exports were down by 1.6 million barrels a day at 3.5 million barrels a day for a weekly increase in net imports to 2 million barrels a day.

Refinery capacity use rose by 1.8 percentage points to 88.1%, against expectations in the Journal survey for a 0.6 percentage point increase.

Gasoline inventories fell by 4.5 million barrels to 229.5 million barrels in an eighth straight weekly draw, and were 3% below the five-year average, the EIA said. Gasoline demand was up by 951,000 barrels a day at 9.4 million barrels a day. Gasoline stocks were projected to have fallen by 1.6 million barrels.

Distillate fuel inventories dropped by 2.4 million barrels to 106.9 million barrels, versus expectations of a 100,000 barrel build, and were 13% below the five-year average.

 
Change in U.S. oil inventories for the week ended April 18: 
 
                   Crude       Gasoline      Distillates        Refinery Use 
EIA data:           0.2          -4.5           -2.4                1.8 
Forecast:           0.6          -1.6            0.1                0.6 
 

Note: Numbers in millions of barrels, with the exception of refinery use, which is in percentage points.

Write to Anthony Harrup at anthony.harrup@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 23, 2025 11:02 ET (15:02 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.