HOUSTON, May 1 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.6 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending April 26, 230,000 b/d less than the previous week's average, according to a weekly report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.
Refineries operated at 87.5 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data report.
During the same period, gasoline production went up while distillate fuel production went down, averaging 9.4 million b/d and 4.5 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose by 7.3 million barrels from the previous week to 460.9 million barrels, and were about 3.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories surged by 0.3 million barrels from the previous week and were about 3.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline inventories decreased, while blending components inventories increased last week.
Distillate fuel inventories dropped by 0.7 million barrels last week, and were about 7 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories surged by 0.2 million barrels, and were 14 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories advanced by 7.9 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.6 million b/d, slightly above the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.6 million b/d, down by 3.6 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.5 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 8.2 percent year on year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 4.5 percent, compared with the same four-week period last year.
