US Crude and Fuel Stockpiles Estimated to Fall: Reuters Poll

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U.S. crude oil and fuel inventories likely declined last week, according to a preliminary Reuters poll on Monday. 

Three analysts surveyed by Reuters projected that crude stockpiles dropped by approximately 2 million barrels for the week ending Dec. 20. 

The estimates come ahead of reports from the American Petroleum Institute (API), scheduled for 4:30 p.m. EST (2130 GMT) on Tuesday, and the Energy Information Administration (EIA), which will release its data at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) on Friday. The EIA report, typically published on Wednesday, has been delayed until Friday due to the Christmas holiday.

For the prior week ending Dec. 13, the EIA reported a crude inventory decline of 934,000 barrels to a total of 421 million barrels, which was below analysts’ expectations of a 1.6-million-barrel draw.

Analysts also predicted that gasoline stockpiles fell by about 2.7 million barrels last week, while distillate inventories, including diesel and heating oil, likely decreased by around 1.1 million barrels. 

Refinery utilization rates were estimated to have dipped by 0.4 percentage points from the previous week’s 91.8% capacity, according to the poll.

All stock figures are measured in millions of barrels, with refinery utilization changes noted in percentage points.

Paraphrasing text from "Reuters" all rights reserved by the original author.