HOUSTON, March 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.8 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending March 24, 437,000 b/d more than the previous week's average, according to the weekly report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Refineries operated at 90.3 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data Report.
Last week, both gasoline and distillate fuel production went up, averaging about 10 million b/d and 4.6 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, fell by 7.5 million barrels from the previous week to 473.7 million barrels, about 6 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories shrank by 2.9 million barrels from the previous week, and were about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline inventories went up while blending components inventories went down last week.
Distillate fuel inventories surged by 0.3 million barrels last week, and were about 9 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories decreased by 2.5 million barrels last week from the previous week, but were 34 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories dropped by 10.7 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the past four week period averaged 19.7 million b/d, down by 5.1 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.8 million b/d, up by 0.6 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 10.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.1 percent compared with the same four week period last year.
