U.S. crude supply soars, gasoline stocks drop

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil inventories shot up last week as a rebound in storm-delayed imports helped make for the largest weekly build since March 2001, while gasoline inventories plummeted as refineries slowed production, weekly government data showed on Wednesday.

Crude stockpiles rose by 9.4 million barrels to 305.9 million barrels, far surpassing expectations for a build of 800,000 barrels, the Energy Information Administration said in its report for the week ending August 15.

Meanwhile, gasoline supplies fell 6.2 million barrels to 196.6 million barrels, much larger than an anticipated decline of 2.7 million barrels, the report said.

"This is still feeling the effects of Tropical Storm Edouard," said Phil Flynn of the larger-than-expected build in crude oil imports. "This was just a backlog of crude imports that had been waiting to come to port. Gasoline supplies fell because refiners didn't have time to turn that crude into products and because gasoline demand is still very poor. There's not a lot of incentive for refiners to make product."

Crude oil imports rose by 1.3 million barrels per day to 11.0 million bpd, after delivery delays caused by Tropical Storm Edouard the week before.

Refinery utilization dropped 0.2 percentage point to 85.7 percent of capacity, against analyst expectations that utilization would climb 0.4 percentage point. Crude runs were down 12,000 bpd at 14.81 million bpd.

Despite a large drawdown in gasoline stockpiles, demand for the fuel was down 23,000 bpd to 9.423 million bpd, against most analysts forecast for a rise to about 9.5 million bpd, from 9.446 million bpd the week before.

"Demand did not move much last week, being down slightly and we have to look at further evidence of weakening demand in the U.S. and that could mean continuing the bearish trend. Also important at this point is demand elsewhere. If demand abroad tanks, that will further add to the bearishness of the market," said Amanda Kurzendoerfer, commodities analyst at Summit Energy in Louisville, Kentucky.

Demand for oil products has dropped 3 percent from year-ago levels in the past four weeks at 20.22 million bpd, the EIA report said.

Supplies of distillate fuels, which include heating oil and diesel, were up 500,000 barrels, slightly higher than the anticipated build of 400,000 barrels.

(Reporting by Rebekah Kebede; Editing by David Gregorio)