HOUSTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15.9 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending March 22, 148,000 b/d more 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 88.7 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data Report.
During the same period, gasoline production went down while distillate fuel production went up, averaging 9.2 million b/d and 4.8 million b/d respectively.
U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, surged by 3.2 million barrels from the previous week to 448.2 million barrels, about 2.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories rose by 1.3 million barrels from the previous week and were about 1.0 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Finished gasoline inventories decreased while blending components inventories increased last week.
Distillate fuel inventories fell by 1.2 million barrels last week, about 6 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.
Propane/propylene inventories slightly decreased last week, 10.0 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.
Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 5.3 million barrels last week.
Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.1 million b/d, up by 2.2 percent from the same period last year.
Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.9 million b/d, up by 0.9 percent from the same period last year.
Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.8 million b/d over the past four weeks, up by 2.2 percent from the same period last year.
Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.4 percent compared with the same four-week period last year. ■