HOUSTON, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 16.6 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending Dec. 2, 53,000 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 95.5 percent of their operable capacity last week, compared with 95.2 percent in the previous week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data Report.
During the same period, gasoline production fell and distillate fuel production grew, averaging 9.1 million b/d and 5.3 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, declined by 5.2 million barrels from the previous week to 413.9 million barrels, about 9 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories surged by 5.3 million barrels last week, about 3 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Also last week, both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories went up. Distillate fuel inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels over the same period of last year, and about 9 percent below the five year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories dropped by one million barrels last week, and about 14 percent above the five year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories rose by 5.9 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four week period averaged 20.1 million b/d, down by 3.8 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.4 million b/d, down by 7.1 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.7 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 9.8 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 7.5 percent compared with the same four week period last year. ■