U.S. crude oil stocks up on imports: report

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles rose last week slightly less than expected as imports gained, the Energy Information Administration said in weekly oil data issued on Wednesday.

The nation's commercial crude oil stocks were up by 1 million barrels to a total of 337.8 million barrels in the week ended November 20, EIA said, while analysts had forecast a build of 1.2 million barrels.

The stocks build follows a separate report Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute (API) trade group, which said the nation's crude oil stocks gained 3.3 million barrels last week as imports rose.

According to the EIA, crude oil imports added 371,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week. Analysts had said that U.S. crude oil inventories likely rose in the week as imports and Gulf of Mexico output rebounded from the disruptions caused by Tropical Storm Ida.

Gasoline stocks increased by 1 million barrels last week to 210.1 million barrels, EIA added, topping the average analyst expectations that they had risen by 300,000 barrels.

Stockpiles of middle distillate, which include heating oil and diesel, were off by 500,000 barrels, the report noted, versus analyst expectations of a small 100,000 barrel fall.

Refinery utilization was up by 0.9 percentage point to 80.3 percent of capacity, versus analyst forecasts that it would be up by 0.3 percentage point.

According to Tuesday's API report, U.S. gasoline stocks posted a gain of 1.7 million barrels last week while stockpiles of middle distillate fell by 2.4 million barrels. Refinery utilization jumped by 2.6 percentage point to 82.2 percent of capacity last week, API added.

(Reporting by Haitham Haddadin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)