HOUSTON, April 23 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending April 18, 326,000 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 88.1 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data report.
During last week, gasoline production went up and distillate fuel production went down, averaging 10.1 million b/d and 4.6 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, surged by 0.2 million barrels from the previous week to 443.1 million barrels, and were about 5 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories declined by 4.5 million barrels from last week, and were about 3 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline inventories rose while blending components inventories dropped last week.
Distillate fuel inventories shrank by 2.4 million barrels last week, and were around 13 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories rose by 2.3 million barrels, and were 7 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories decreased by 0.7 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.9 million b/d, up by 0.4 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.7 million b/d, down by 0.4 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million b/d over the past four weeks, up by 12.8 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 13.8 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.
