US oil stocks fall unexpectedly last week, distillates drop-EIA

NEW YORK, Oct 3 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stocks declined unexpectedly lastweek and distillate inventories fell more steeply than forecast, government datashowed on Wednesday.

Domestic stocks of crude dropped by 482,000 barrels in the week to Sept. 28,the Energy Information Administration reported, despite an increase in imports.Analysts polled by Reuters ahead of the data release had forecast a stock gainof 1.5 million barrels.

Imports of crude rose by 511,000 barrels per day to just over 8 million bpdduring the week.

U.S. distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.69million barrels in the week, well above analysts' average forecast for a declineof 400,000 barrels.

The Midwest region showed the biggest decline in distillate inventories, off1.87 million barrels, while Gulf Coast stocks fell by 1.67 million barrels.Stockpiles of the fuel on the East Coast, home to the world's largest heatingoil market, fell by 410,000 barrels, with Central Atlantic stocks of distillatesoff 929,000 barrels.

U.S. gasoline inventories rose by 114,000 barrels, against expectations of a600,000-barrels draw.

Demand in the world's largest consumer continued to drop, with gasoline useover the four weeks to Sept. 28 down 2.5 percent from year-earlier levels whiledistillate demand was off 4.5 percent.

Refinery utilization increased by 0.8 percentage point to 88.2 percent ofcapacity. Analysts had forecast a decline in plant utilization of 0.1 percentagepoint.

U.S. crude futures

held losses, trading down $2.55 at $89.34 a barrelafter the release of the data.

(Reporting by Matthew Robinson; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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Keywords: ENERGY STOCKS/EIA