NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gasoline stocks climbed last week, against expectations for a draw as imports and output increased while demand lagged below year ago levels, according to government data issued on Wednesday.
Crude oil inventories, however, were unchanged as refinery utilization remained steady and crude imports dropped.
"Gasoline stocks were up on higher gasoline production, while a drop off in imports dragged on crude stocks this week, bringing them in below expectations," said Chris Jarvis, senior analyst at Caprock Risk Management in New Hampshire.
Gasoline supplies were up by 1.1 million barrels at 196.1 million barrels in the week to October 31, contrary to analyst projections for a draw of 800,000 barrels, the Energy Information Administration reported.
"We had looked for gasoline usage to still be drawn from inventories and not new supplies, so the (gasoline) build was a bit of a surprise, especially since MasterCard data showed demand up week on week, an increase attributable to lower pump prices. So there should be continued pressure on gasoline because of that," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president at MF Global in New York.
Total gasoline output was up 262,000 barrels per day at 9.11 million, while gasoline demand for the past four weeks was down 2.3 percent from year-ago levels.
Weekly product imports also increased by 242,000 bpd to 3.23 million bpd.
Crude oil inventories were unchanged last week at 311.9 million barrels, against expectations for a build of 1.1 million barrels, as refinery utilization rates also remained unchanged at 85.3 percent of capacity, the EIA said.
Crude imports fell by 365,000 bpd to 9.97 million bpd. Crude runs dropped 234,000 barrels per day to 14.62 million bpd.
However, crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma NYMEX delivery point rose 1.8 million barrels to 17.5 million.
"Unchanged crude supply looks neutral, but 1.8 million barrel increase in Cushing stocks should weaken the curve," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Illinois.
Stocks of distillate fuels -- which include heating oil and diesel -- climbed 1.2 million barrels, slightly less than expectations for a 1.4 million barrels increase.
Weekly distillates output was off 43,000 bpd to 4.39 million bpd, while demand over the past four weeks was down 4.8 percent from a year ago at 4.01 million bpd.
Total product demand for the past four weeks was 6.7 percent below year-ago levels at 19.10 million barrels per day.
(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
