HOUSTON, April 24 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending April 19, 42,000 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 88.5 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the EIA's Weekly Petroleum Data report.
During the same period, gasoline production went down while distillate fuel production went up, averaging 9.1 million b/d and 4.8 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, dropped by 6.4 million barrels from the previous week to 453.6 million barrels, and were about 3.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 0.6 million barrels from the previous week and were about 4.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline inventories increased, while blending components inventories decreased last week.
Distillate fuel inventories advanced by 1.6 million barrels last week, and were about 7 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories surged by 1.0 million barrels last week, and were 14 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories shrank by 3.8 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.8 million b/d, up by 0.1 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million b/d, down by 11.6 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.4 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 8.4 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 2.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.
