Oil futures were little changed Thursday after US Energy Information Administration data showed a build in crude stocks, but draws in gasoline and distillate inventories.
US crude inventories rose 614,000 barrels to 486.063 million barrels in the week that ended December 23, according to the EIA. Analysts S&P Global Platts surveyed Tuesday were looking for a draw of 1.5 million barrels.
NYMEX January crude settled down 29 cents at $53.77/b. ICE February Brent expired 8 cents lower at $56.14/b. The March contract settled down 11 cents at $56.85/b.
The main driver behind last week's build was a slowdown in refinery activity. Crude runs fell 101,000 b/d to 16.557 million b/d, lowering the refinery utilization rate by 0.5 percentage point to 91% of capacity.
Analysts were looking for an increase of 0.5 percentage point, which was consistent with seasonal trends as refiners tend to ramp up activity in December after completing autumn maintenance.
A decline in US crude imports helped mitigate the size of last week's crude build. Crude imports dropped 304,000 b/d to 8.167 million b/d. Imports have averaged 7.9 million b/d so far in 2016.
A weaker dollar, which makes crude and fuel imports less expensive for holders of other currencies, helped support crude prices Thursday.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.6 point at 102.69 in the afternoon. On Wednesday, that index approached last week's mark of 103.63, which represented a 14-year high.
Amid thin holiday trading, several recent trends, including dollar strength, reversed course, Marc Chandler, head of currency strategy at Brown Brothers Harriman, said in a Thursday note.
The "news stream is light and moves seem to be more about position adjustments rather than the emergence of new drivers," he said.
PRODUCTS DRAW
Another supportive factor for the oil complex Thursday was unexpected draws in US gasoline and distillate stocks.
NYMEX January ULSD settled 44 points higher at $1.7037/gal after EIA data showed US distillate stocks fell 1.881 million barrels to 151.634 million barrels in the week that ended December 23.
Analysts were looking for a build of 800,000 barrels.
Distillate stocks now sit nearly 1% below the year-ago level, marking the first time in 2016 there has been a year-on-year deficit.
NYMEX January RBOB rose 74 points to settle at $1.6820/gal. Gasoline stocks fell 1.593 million barrels last week to 227.143 million barrels, compared with analysts' expectations of a build of 500,000 barrels.
Anthony Starkey, Platts Analytics energy analysis manager, said Thursday's EIA weekly report was "fairly supportive, if somewhat dull," as the market turns its attention to OPEC-led supply cuts that begin January 1.
"The real work/interest kicks into high gear into the new year with the monitoring of proposed supply cuts from numerous nations set to begin next week," he said.
