U.S. crude inventories fell by 7.06 million bbl for the week ending Friday (Aug. 12), a much larger draw than expected, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said.

In the weekly petroleum report issued on Wednesday, EIA said the inventory declined compared to a build of 5.5 million bbl in the previous week. The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday had estimated a crude draw of 448,000 bbl. 

Gasoline inventories drew down by 4.6 million bbl for the week, versus a 5 million bbl pull a week earlier. Gasoline production averaged 10 million b/d, versus 10.2 million the preceding week. Excluding the pull from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, inventories would have fallen by an estimated 10.46 million bbl. 

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