US crude stocks fell 4.137 million barrels to 367.592 million barrels, with the largest decline seen in the US Gulf Coast, which fell 2.845 million barrels to 188.681 million barrels. The draw came despite a 185,000 b/d climb in Gulf Coast imports to 5.358 million b/d, which exceeded the 104,000 b/d climb in crude inputs to 7.662 million b/d.
US Midwest crude stocks fell 2.6 million barrels to 91.952 million barrels, despite slightly higher crude inputs and slightly lower imports.
Stocks also fell on the Atlantic Coast and Rockies, although inventories jumped 2.575 million barrels to 59.384 million barrels on the US West Coast.
Crude stocks at the NYMEX light sweet crude contract delivery point of Cushing, Oklahoma, fell 908,000 barrels to 32.81 million barrels. Analysts polled by Platts earlier in the week were expecting a 2-million-barrel crude stock build, following a building trend that has largely been in place since
early September. The API draw appears bullish for NYMEX crude, although the market will likely wait for confirmation from the US Energy Information Administration data due out Wednesday.
Whether the EIA shows a similar draw is hard to tell. While both sets of data have shown US stocks climbing from around the 359-million-barrel level for the week ended September 3, the API has shown larger week-on-week swings, both up and down.
Also, the API's US crude inventories have been higher than the EIA's. For the week ended October 22, API's US crude stocks were 5.523 million barrels above the EIA's 366.206 million barrels.
API and EIA Cushing stocks have been running neck and neck lately, however. The API shows Cushing stocks down 5.086 million barrels from the end of July.
Analysts were expecting a 1.1-million-barrel gasoline stock build and a 900,000-barrel distillate stock draw. The API reported a 3.202-million-barrel gasoline stock draw to 219.739 million barrels, and a 4.727-million-barrel distillate stock draw to 161.406 million barrels.
The largest gasoline stock draws were seen in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. Gasoline imports rose 32,000 b/d to 1.029 million b/d, while production fell 179,000 b/d to 8.889 million b/d.
Gasoline stocks have fallen from 230.771 million barrels the week ended September 24, according to the API.
The EIA has also shown a similar trend, but, as with crude, has been reporting lower levels. For the week ended October 22, the EIA's US gasoline stocks came in 8 million barrels below the API's stocks.
The largest draws in US distillate stocks last week were seen on the US Atlantic Coast and the Midwest, the API data showed. Atlantic Coast heating oil stocks fell 1.646 million barrels to 42.114 million barrels.
US distillate production fell 32,000 b/d to 4.242 million b/d, while imports tumbled to just 108,000 b/d from 305,000 b/d.
