By Dan Molinski 
 

U.S. crude stockpiles rose more than expected in the week ended Aug. 28, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Crude-oil stockpiles increased by 4.7 million barrels to 455.4 million barrels, the EIA said, reversing a sharp decline in supplies the week before. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted supplies would rise by 100,000 barrels on the week.

Oil stored at Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for U.S. benchmark oil futures, fell by 388,000 barrels to 57.3 million barrels.

Gasoline stockpiles declined by 271,000 barrels to 214.2 million barrels, the EIA said in its weekly report. Analysts had predicted stockpiles would decline by 1.5 million barrels from the previous week.

Distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 115,000 barrels to 150 million barrels, staying in the middle of the average range for this time of the year, the EIA said. Analysts had expected a 1.2 million-barrel weekly increase.

Refining capacity utilization fell 1.7 percentage points from the previous week, to 92.8%. Analysts had expected a 0.5 percentage-point decline in usage.

U.S. oil inventories for week ended Aug. 28:

 
                Crude    Gasoline   Distillates   Refinery Use 
 
   EIA data:     +4.7      -0.3         +0.1          -1.7 
   Forecast:     +0.1      -1.5         +1.2          -0.5 
 

Figures are in millions of barrels, rounded, except for refining use, which is reported in percentage points. Forecasts are the average of expectations in a Wall Street Journal survey of analysts earlier in the week.

Write to Dan Molinski at dan.molinski@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 02, 2015 11:08 ET (15:08 GMT)