Washington: The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) has announced a decline in US crude oil, gasoline, and distillate inventories last week.

According to Qatar News Agency, the EIA, the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, stated in a statement today that crude oil inventories fell by 961,000 barrels to 422.8 million barrels last week, compared to expectations for a 1.2 million-barrel increase.

It also stated that crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 770,000 barrels during the week, noting that refinery crude throughput grew by 600,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates also increased by 2.9 percentage points to 88.6 percent.

The EIA indicated that US gasoline inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels last week to 216.7 million barrels, compared to expectations for a 0.8 million-barrel decrease.

The EIA's data showed that distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels last week to 115.6 million barrels, compared to expectations for a 1.9 million barrel decline.

It also noted that net US crude imports increased by 656,000 barrels per day last week.