US oil inventories fall by 1.3M barrels last week: EIA

US oil inventories declined during the week ended Dec. 12, signaling resilient fuel demand in the world’s largest economy.

Commercial crude oil inventories fell by 1.3 million barrels last week, compared with market expectations for a larger decline of about 1.9 million barrels, data released on Dec. 17 by the Energy Information Administration (EIA) revealed.

The data also indicated that gasoline inventories rose by 4.8 million barrels over the same period, while distillate inventories—including diesel and heating oil—increased by 1.7 million barrels.