Surprise draws in US crude, gasoline stocks - EIA

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories posted a surprise sharp drop last week as imports decreased, according to weekly U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data issued on Wednesday.

Commercial crude oil stocks in the United States fell by 4 million barrels to 335.9 million barrels in the week to Oct. 30, running counter to analysts' expectations that they had risen by 1.4 million barrels on average.

Crude imports fell by 764,000 barrels per day (bpd).

In its own weekly data on Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group, said domestic crude oil inventories fell 3.3 million barrels last week as imports dropped. [API/S]

Gasoline inventories fell 300,000 barrels to 208.3 million barrels, EIA reported, versus forecasts of a small 300,000-barrel build.

Stocks of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, were off 400,000 barrels to 167.4 million barrels, lagging forecasts of a 1 million-barrel decline.

Refinery demand for crude oil, known as "crude runs," dropped by 233,000 bpd to 13.97 million bpd as refinery utilization fell 1.2 percentage point to 80.6 percent of capacity, counter to expectations of a 0.1 percentage point rise.

API had said U.S. gasoline and distillates stocks were up 501,000 barrels and 1.8 million barrels, respectively. [API/S] (Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; New York Energy Desk; editing by Jim Marshall)