U.S. crude oil stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) fell last week to their lowest since April 2022 as exports rose and imports fell, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Jan. 15.

Crude inventories fell by 2 MMbbl to 412.7 MMbbl in the week ending Jan. 10, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 992,000-bbl draw.

Net U.S. crude imports fell by 1.3 MMbbl/d, EIA said, to 2.05 MMbbl/d. And weekly crude exports were up 1 MMbbl/d to 4.08 MMbbl/d.

"The crude oil draw was largely on import-export dynamics," said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho.

"The exports are hard to believe, since the WTI/Brent spread was stronger than $3.50 a barrel and all of this happened before the Biden administration's sanctions on Russia," he added.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub  rose by 765,000 bbl.

"The Cushing build should help with the extreme backwardation. Grim situation but less grim than last week." said Mizuho's Yawger.

Brent, U.S. crude futures pared gains despite the larger-than-expected draw in crude stocks.

Refinery crude runs  fell by 255,000 bbl/d in the week, the EIA said.

Refinery utilization rates fell by 1.6 percentage points to 91.7%.

U.S. gasoline stocks  rose by 5.9 MMbbl in the week to 243.6 MMbbl, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations for a 2 MMbbl build.

U.S. gasoline futures pared gains after the larger-than-expected build in gasoline stocks.

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Gasoline supplied, a proxy for demand, fell to 8.33 MMbbl last week, down from 8.48 MMbbl/d. ​

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.1 MMbbl to 132 MMbbl, their highest since January 2024 and surpassing expectations for an 800,000-bbl rise, the EIA data showed.

U.S. heating oil futures extended gains despite the larger-than-expected build in distillate stocks.

"A bullish oil draw, a bearish products build, overall looks pretty good for oil bulls considering seasonality," said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Bison Interests.

"It is not surprising oil has recovered from the high $60s to the high $70s over the past few weeks. Unless some new supply comes on, or demand falls a lot, prices could be a lot higher this summer," he added.

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