HOUSTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.7 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending Dec. 6, 251,000 b/d less than the previous week's average, according to the weekly report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.
Refineries operated at 92.4 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data Report.
During the same period, gasoline production went up but distillate fuel production went down, averaging 10.0 million b/d and 5.2 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, dropped by 1.4 million barrels from the previous week to 422 million barrels, about 6 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories rose by 5.1 million barrels from last week, about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline and blending components inventories both surged last week. Distillate fuel inventories increased by 3.2 million barrels last week and were about 4 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories went down by 3.0 million barrels last week, and were 7 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories went down by 0.9 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million b/d, up by 0.9 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.6 million b/d, up by 1.4 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.6 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 2.1 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year. ■
