LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Commercial crude oil stockpiles in the US rose unexpectedly during the prior week, government data revealed despite a decline in net imports and domestic output.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the US Department of Energy\'s statistical arm, commercial crude oil stockpiles rose by 2.2m barrels over the week ending on 7 June and at 485.5m barrels were standing roughly 8% above their five-year average.

But domestic oil output decreased by roughly 100,000 barrels a day to 12.3m b/d while net imports shrank by 140,000 b/d to 4.489m b/d with exports down by 176,000 b/d.

Inventories of finished gasoline meanwhile rose by 0.8m barrels during the week, leaving them 2% above their five-year average, while those of distillates decreased by 1.0m barrels and were 4% below their five-year average.

Refineries operated at 93.2% of capacity over the latest week.

\"Nevertheless, we still expect US crude stocks to drop in the coming months in part because we think that OPEC+ will rollover its production quota,\" said Samuel Burman, assistant commodities economist at Capital Economics.

As of 1912 BST, West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures for July delivery were trading down by 3.08% to $51.68 a barrel on the ICE.

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