US crude oil inventories rose for the third straight time last week while product stockpiles plunged, data from the Energy Information Administration showed on Wednesday. Domestic crude stocks rose 2.79 million barrels in the week to April 6, fattening the 3-week build to 18.9 million barrels to mark the largest 3-week increase since January 2009. The average forecast had been for a build of 2.1 million barrels in a Reuters survey of analysts. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma delivery point for the New York Mercantile Exchange crude contract rose 292,000 barrels to 40.59 million barrels. Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, dropped million barrels to 131.89 million barrels. Analysts had forecast a decline of 200,000 barrels. Average distillate demand over the last four weeks slumped 3.6 percent from year-ago levels. Gasoline inventories fell 4.28 million barrels to 217.64 million barrels. Analysts had projected a 1.3-million-barrel drop. Stockpiles on the East Coast, which is facing the potential shutdown of three refineries this summer, declined 1.92 million barrels. Gasoline demand dropped 4 percent from a year earlier. Refinery utilization slipped 1.9 percentage points to 83.8 percent of capacity, compared with forecasts for a rise of 0.3 percentage point. NYMEX crude oil prices traded higher after the EIA report came out, and were up $1.30 at $102.32 per barrel as of 10:50 a.m. EDT (1450 GMT).

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