U.S. crude oil inventories rose unexpectedly last week as exports fell and refiners lowered their runs, while gasoline stocks also posted a surprise build as demand slowed, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Aug. 3.

Crude inventories rose by 4.5 million barrels in the week to July 29 to 426.6 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 600,000-barrel drop.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for U.S. futures rose by 926,000 barrels in the week, the EIA said.

Refinery crude runs fell by 174,000 bbl/d, and refinery utilization rates dropped by 1.2 percentage points to 91% of total capacity.

“There’s nothing good in this report for anybody unless you’re waiting for things to fall apart and to be a buyer on the downside,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.

Meanwhile, net crude imports rose by 2.21 million bbl/d, the EIA said. U.S. crude exports fell about 1 million bbl/d to 3.5 million bbl/d.

Exports fell despite U.S. crude's discount to Brent widening to over $11/bbl last week, the widest since April 2020. A wider discount typically makes U.S. crude more attractive to foreign buyers.

“You would expect exports to supersize while the Brent/WTI was flying off the handle, but exports are down over a million barrels on the week,” Yawger said.

Gasoline stocks rose by about 200,000 barrels in the week to 225.3 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations for a 1.6 million-barrel drop.

Product supplied of gasoline—a proxy for demand—fell about 700,000 bbl/d to 8.5 million bbl/d.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.4 million barrels in the week to 109.3 million barrels, versus expectations for a 1 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed.

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