Oil stocks drop by nearly 10 million barrels: EIA

(Reuters) - U.S. crude stocks fell by nearly 10 million barrels last week as refineries hiked output, while gasoline and distillate inventories rose, the Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 9.9 million barrels in the last week, compared with analysts' expectations for a decrease of 2.6 million barrels.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub fell by 2.7 million barrels, EIA said.

Refinery crude runs rose by 115,000 barrels per day, EIA data showed. Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.8 percentage points.

Gasoline stocks rose by 1.2 million barrels, compared with analyst expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.3 million-barrel gain.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, were up by 15,000 barrels, versus expectations for a 774,000-barrel increase, the EIA data showed.

Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 512,000 barrels per day.

(Reporting By David Gaffen)

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