Washington: The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced an increase in US crude oil and gasoline inventories, while distillate stocks declined last week.

According to Qatar News Agency, the EIA, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, explained in its report issued on Wednesday that crude oil inventories rose by 574,000 barrels to 427.5 million barrels last week, compared to expectations of a decrease of 821,000 barrels.

It added that crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 457,000 barrels during that week, noting that refinery crude runs increased by 433,000 barrels per day.

The EIA indicated that refinery utilization rates rose by 1.8 percentage points, while gasoline inventories increased by 4.52 million barrels last week to 214.42 million barrels, compared to expectations of an increase of 1.5 million barrels.

The data also showed that distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 293,000 barrels in the week to 114.3 million barrels, compared with expectations of a 0.7-million-barrel increase, while net U.S. crude oil imports fell by 470,000 barrels per day to 2.37 million barrels per day.