Washington: The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced a decline in US crude oil and distillate inventories, while gasoline inventories rose last week. According to Qatar News Agency, the EIA, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, stated in its report issued Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 3.5 million barrels to 420.3 million barrels last week. This decline comes alongside a drop in oil production to its lowest level since last November, contrasting with prior expectations of a 489,000-barrel increase. The report added that crude inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 743,000 barrels during the same week. Additionally, crude oil consumption at refineries decreased by 180,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates saw a decrease of 0.4 percentage points, bringing them to 90.5 percent. Data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) indicated that US gasoline inventories rose by 685,000 barrels to 257.9 million barrels, reaching their hi ghest level since June 2020. This increase was lower than the expected 1.4-million-barrel rise. The data also showed that distillate fuel inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 5.6 million barrels last week to 127.4 million barrels, contrary to expectations of a 2.3-million-barrel decline. The EIA further noted that net US crude oil imports increased by 1.1 million barrels per day.