HOUSTON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.3 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending July 15, 321,000 b/d less than the previous week's average, according to a weekly report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Refineries operated at 93.7 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data report.
During the same period, gasoline production increased and distillate fuel production decreased, averaging 9.4 million b/d and 5 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, went down by 0.4 million barrels from the previous week to 426.6 million barrels, about 6 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Also last week, total motor gasoline inventories rose by 3.5 million barrels, about 3 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories surged last week.
Distillate fuel inventories declined by 1.3 million barrels last week, about 23 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories increased by 1.4 million barrels last week, about 16 percent below the five year average for this time of year. Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 1.1 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four week period averaged 20.1 million b/d, down by 2.6 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million b/d, down by 7.6 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 0.6 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 9 percent compared with the same four week period last year.
