By Stephanie Kelly
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose last week as imports increased and exports fell to their lowest since January, while gasoline and distillate inventories drew down, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 2.6 million barrels to 442.3 million barrels in the week ended April 4, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 million-barrel rise.
Net U.S. crude imports rose last week by 360,000 barrels per day to just under 3 million bpd as exports fell 637,000 bpd to 3.2 million bpd, the data showed.
“Exports are on the lower level and we will have to see if we are going to lose access to the China market, and whether we will see a diminished export situation going forward,” said John Kilduff, partner with Again Capital in New York.
In retaliation against U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, China has announced tariffs on U.S. goods. From Thursday, China will impose 84% tariffs on U.S. goods, up from the previously announced 34%, the finance ministry said.
Oil prices pared some losses after the EIA data release but were last down over 5%.
Gasoline stocks fell by 1.6 million barrels in the week to 236 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with expectations for a 1.5 million-barrel draw.​
Product supplied of gasoline, a proxy for demand, fell to 8.4 million bpd from 8.5 million bpd in the previous week. Lower consumption heading into the peak summer demand season has worried some investors.
“This is a bad number and this might be evidence of what we are hearing from economists that there is a slowdown, and maybe people are scared of tariffs,” Kilduff said.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.5 million barrels in the week to 111.1 million barrels, versus expectations for a 260,000-barrel rise, the data showed.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 681,000 barrels, the EIA said.
Refinery crude runs rose by 69,000 bpd and utilization rates rose by 0.7 percentage point to 86.7% of capacity.
(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Georgina McCartney; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
