Dec 6 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell last week with production dropping for the first time since July, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose as refiners ramped up output, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories (USOILC=ECI) fell by 4.6 million barrels in the week ending Dec. 1 to 445 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.4 million-barrel drop. Crude runs at U.S. oil refineries (USOICR=ECI) rose by 179,000 bpd last week, the EIA said, while utilization rates (USOIRU=ECI) rose by 0.7 percentage point to 90.5% of total capacity.

The crude stock figure was adjusted down 2.7 million barrels, the biggest week-on-week drop in unaccounted barrels on record.

U.S. gasoline futures dropped to their lowest level in two years on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported a larger-than-anticipated build in the motor fuel's stockpiles.

Gasoline stocks (USOILG=ECI) rose by 5.4 million barrels in the week to 223.6 million barrels, the EIA said, far exceeding expectations for a 1 million-barrel build.

“We're finally beginning to see the impact of refiners returning from maintenance as crude oil inventories drew, but gasoline and distillate inventories more than enough to offset the crude oil draw," said Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates.

Product supplied of motor gasoline, the EIA's measure of demand, rose 3% last week to 8.46 million barrels per day, EIA data showed. That was the first increase in demand in four weeks, but still lags the 10-year seasonal average by 2.5%.

Distillate stockpiles (USOILD=ECI), which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 1.3 million barrels to 112 million barrels, the data showed, versus forecasts for a 1.5 million-barrel rise.

Both crude benchmarks extended losses following the storage report. Brent crude futures settled down $2.90, or 3.8%, at $74.30 a barrel. U.S. WTI crude futures fell by $2.94, or 4.1%, to $69.38 a barrel.

Net U.S. crude imports (USOICI=ECI) rose by 2.1 million barrels per day (bpd), while crude production fell 100,000 bpd to 13.1 million bpd, its first weekly decline since July, the EIA said.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub for WTI (USOICC=ECI) rose by 1.8 million barrels in the last week, the EIA said.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-crude-stocks-fall-fuel-inventories-rise-latest-week-eia-2023-12-06/