EIA: US crude inventories fell last week but gasoline built up on weaker demand

The Energy Information Agency (EIA) released the latest US commercial crude inventory data that showed a reduction of 2.1 million barrels last week to 417.9 million barrels, which was a result of companies’ continued effort to cut year-end tax. 

On the other hand, gasoline stocks built up 10.1 million barrels to 232.8 million barrels as demand fall rapidly from the impact of the Omicron variant. 

Refinery utilization rate rose another 0.1 percentage point to 89.8% during the week.