EIA: US crude oil inventories are rising, but fuel consumption decreased last week.

The Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly rose last week while gasoline and distillate stocks fell.

The EIA reported that crude inventories increased by 1.36m barrels, to 430.7m barrels for the week ending August 9, compared with the 2.2m barrels analysts expected in a poll.

The EIA reported that crude stocks at Cushing, Oklahoma's delivery hub, fell by 1.7 millions barrels.

Crude futures continued to lose money following the unexpected build. Brent futures traded at $80.32 per barrel at 10:48 am, down 37 cents. ET (1448 GMT), whereas U.S. crude dropped 63 cents to $76.72 a barrel.

The refinery crude run increased by 65,000 barrels a day and the refinery utilization rate rose by one percentage point to 91.5% in the past week.

The EIA reported that gasoline stocks dropped by 2.9m barrels during the week, to 222.2m barrels. This is more than twice the expected 1.3m barrel draw. ?

The data revealed that distillate stocks, which includes diesel and heating oil fell by 1.7m barrels last week, to 126.1m barrels. This was compared with expectations of a 520,000 barrel draw.

The EIA reported that net U.S. crude exports increased by 118,000 bpd and reached 3.76 million bpd. Reporting by Liz Hampton, Denver Editing by Margueritachoy

(source: Reuters)