The US Energy Information Administration announced Wednesday that crude oil inventories in the United States rose as fuel demand fell last week.

The administration, which is the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy, said in a statement that crude oil inventories rose by 3.9 million barrels to 417 million last week, and crude oil inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery center also rose by 840,000 barrels.

In contrast, refinery crude consumption fell by 662,000 barrels per day, and refinery utilization rates fell by 3.3 percentage points last week to 87.6 percent.

It added that gasoline inventories in the United States rose by 1.1 million barrels to 221 million barrels.

The administration’s data showed that distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, decreased by 1.3 million barrels to 122 million barrels, while US net crude imports rose by 191,000 barrels per day last week.

Source: Qatar News Agency