US crude stocks fell 4.574 million barrels to 330.027 million barrels for the week ending December 16, outpacing analyst expectations as imports declined, data released by the American Petroleum Institute showed Tuesday.
Analysts were anticipating a 2.25 million-barrel draw.
The bulk of the crude stock decline was seen in the US Gulf Coast region, where inventories fell 3.992 million barrels, followed by the West Coast, where stocks slid 1.806 million barrels.
The declines offset a 1.675 million-barrel build in the Midwest.
Stocks at the NYMEX delivery point at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell 1.01 million barrels to 30.2 million barrels, API data showed.
Total crude stocks fell amid a 317,000 b/d drop in imports to 8.303 million b/d, even as inputs to crude distillation units dropped 366,000 b/d to 14.742 million b/d.
Imports of crude on the USGC fell nearly 1 million b/d, possibly due to fog that delayed vessel boardings last week in the Houston Ship Channel. The channel serves a total of eight refineries, with a total capacity of 2.23 million b/d, according to Platts and EIA data.
Refiners also lowered utilization by 2.1 percentage points to 83.1% of capacity.
US gasoline stocks fell 394,000 barrels to 213.854 million barrels, counter to analyst expectations of a 1.75 million-barrel build.
Stocks declined as demand for gasoline rose 946,000 b/d to 10.070 million b/d.
API, however, revised down its total gasoline stocks figure for the week ending December 9 to 214.248 million barrels from 215.348 million barrels, which was near flat from the previous week.
Builds in gasoline stocks for the week to December 16 in the Midwest of 333,000 barrels and the US Gulf Coast of 619,000 barrels were offset by a 1.148 million-barrel draw on the US Atlantic Coast.
Demand inched higher for gasoline while production rose 797,000 b/d to 10.568 million b/d.
Imports of gasoline declined a marginal 16,000 b/d to 470,000 b/d.
Distillate stocks fell 2.779 million barrels to 139.604 million barrels, more than the 600,000-barrel decline expected by analysts and remain 21.653 million barrels below year-ago levels.
On the USAC, distillate stocks were down 31,000 barrels from the week prior and were 50,000 barrels below the same period in 2010.
The decline in total stocks was seen amid a rise in demand of 673,000 b/d to 5.109 million b/d and a 256,000 b/d increase in distillate production to 5.101 million b/d.
In distillates, heating oil stocks rose 116,000 barrels, while inventories of ultra low sulfur diesel fell 563,000 barrels.
Total product demand, according to API data, rose 1.888 million b/d to 25.082 million b/d.
