US commercial crude oil and gasoline inventories drained lower last week, according to the latest government survey. But stocks of heating oil and diesel rose.
Crude oil inventories in the week ending August 6 fell 4.3 million barrels to 294.3 million, on the low side of average for this time of year, the US Energy Department said.
Stocks of gasoline dropped 1.8 million barrels to 208.3 million. Distillates - mostly diesel and heating oil - gained 1.3 million barrels to 122.5 million. Among distillates, diesel rose 1.1 million barrels to 73.3 and heating oil edged up 300,000 barrels to 47.5 million.
A parallel survey by the American Petroleum Institute found crude oil stocks slumped 5.2 million barrels to 294.3 million, gasoline fell 2.4 million barrels to 210.3 million but distillates rose 3.1 million barrels to 121.5 million.
The crude oil reserves data exclude the 665.7 million barrel US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.
