The Energy Department is expected to report a drop of 1.6 million barrels in U.S. oil reserves for the week that ended July 16, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The Energy Information Administration releases its weekly report at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. Platts expects gasoline stockpiles to increase by 1 million barrels, distillate stocks to rise by 1.6 million barrels and refinery utilization to decrease 0.5 percentage point to 90 percent. A reading above or below estimates can influence market trading. For the week ended July 9, the EIA said commercial crude inventories shrank by 5.1 million barrels to 353.1 million barrels; gasoline inventories rose 1.6 million barrels to 221 million barrels; and distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.9 million barrels to 162.6 million barrels.

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