U.S. crude inventories rose last week, distillates off -API

NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories rose slightly last week while distillate stockpiles showed an unexpected draw due to a steep decline on the East Coast, data from the American Petroleum Institute showed on Tuesday.

Crude inventories rose by 335,000 barrels in the week to Sept. 21, compared with analysts' expectations for a build of 900,000 barrels, the API reported.

The build came despite a 437,000 barrel per day drop off in crude imports to 8.95 million bpd, the API data showed.

A nearly 1.4 million barrel build in crude stockpiles along the Gulf Coast was offset by a 993,000 barrel decline in inventories in the PADD 4 Rocky Mountain region and a 660,000 barrel drop in East Coast inventories.

U.S. distillate stocks declined by 483,000 barrels, after analyst forecast an 800,000 barrel rise. The drop was focused on the U.S. East Coast, where stockpiles fell by 1.885 million barrels, while the Gulf Coast saw a 1 million barrel rise.

Ahead of the winter, heating oil inventories on the East Coast, the largest market for the fuel, fell by 837,000 barrels. Total U.S. heating oil inventories declined by 1.1 million barrels.

U.S gasoline inventories showed a 112,000 barrel build, just below forecasts for an increase of 200,000 barrels in a Reuters poll of analysts. East Coast supplies fell by more than 1.1 million barrels, while Midwest stocks were down 600,000 barrels.

The Gulf Coast, the only region with a build in gasoline for the week according to the API data, showed a near 1.9 million barrel rise.

"The further declines in PADD 1 (U.S. Northeast) gasoline inventories will continue to support RBOB (gasoline) prices and magnify the effect of any refinery operating problems that may occur," said John Kilduff of hedge fund Again Capital LLC in New York.

The drawdown in distillate stockpiles was likely due to consumers filling up tanks ahead of the heating season, Kilduff added.

Refinery utilization fell to 86.9 percent of capacity this week, versus 87.8 percent last week, according to the API. Analysts had forecast a 0.3 percentage point rise in utilization.

Brent crude was up 16 cents at $109.97 a barrel at 4:35 p.m. EDT (2035 GMT), after settling at $110.45. Brent had been up 30 cents ahead of the API data. (Reporting by Matthew Robinson and Robert Gibbons)