By Stephanie Kelly
(Reuters) – U.S. crude stocks fell in the latest week while gasoline and distillate inventories posted big builds, as oil refiners’ utilization climbed to the highest since 2019, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.
  Crude inventories fell by 5.2 million barrels in the week to Dec. 2 to 413.9 million barrels, a decline that far exceeded analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 3.3 million-barrel drop.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 6.2 million barrels in the week to 118.8 million barrels, versus expectations for a 2.2 million-barrel rise, the EIA data showed. The large build came despite the colder winter months typically being a period of higher demand for the product.
“The distillates situation is the headline here,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York. “You’re making lot of distillates, and the demand number is down again this week. This is the first report of December and you still have demand going south, not north.”
  U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 5.3 million barrels in the week to 219.1 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 2.7 million-barrel rise.
  Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.3 percentage points in the week to 95.5%, highest since August 2019, EIA data showed.
Meanwhile, U.S. crude production rose to 12.2 million barrels per day, highest since August.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 373,000 barrels in the last week, EIA said.
  Refinery crude runs fell by 53,000 barrels per day in the last week, EIA said.
  Net U.S. crude imports rose by 1.49 million barrels per day, EIA said.
(Reporting By David Gaffen and Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Shariq Khan; Editing by David Gregorio)