NEW YORK--U.S. crude inventories fell sharply in the week ended July 12, according to data released Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration unit of the U.S. Department of Energy.
Crude oil stockpiles dropped 6.9 million barrels to 367 million barrels, compared with an average survey estimate for stocks to drop 2.2 million barrels on the week.
Gasoline stockpiles rose 3.1 million barrels to 224.1 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a 400,000-barrel decline.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose 3.87 million barrels to 127.7 million barrels, compared with analysts' forecast of a rise of 1.7 million barrels.
Refining capacity utilization rose 0.4 percentage point to 92.8% of capacity. Analysts had expected the operating rate to drop by 0.4 percentage point in the week.
Figures are in millions of barrels, except for refining use, which is reported in percentage points. Forecasts are the average of expectations in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of analysts earlier in the week.
Write to David Bird at david.bird@dowjones.com
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