US crude stockpiles fall on higher exports, gasoline builds - EIA

(Rewrites first paragraph, adds export details in paragraph 3, comments in paragraphs 4, 9, adds prices in paragraphs 12-14)

HOUSTON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil stockpiles last week fell to their lowest this year on strong export demand, while gasoline inventories rose much more than expected on weak demand, according to the Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 2.2 million barrels in the week to Sept. 29 to 414.1 million barrels, their lowest since December 2022. Analysts polled by Reuters had expected a 400,000-barrel drop.

Crude exports climbed 944,000 barrels per day to nearly 5 million bpd, while net crude imports fell by 1.96 million bpd, EIA said.

"Strong exports have combined with weaker imports to draw crude inventories, albeit modestly," said Kpler analyst Matt Smith.

Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage and delivery hub for U.S. crude futures rose by 132,000 barrels to 22.1 million barrels last week, the EIA said.

It marked the first build in eight weeks after inventories at the key storage hub dropped in the prior week to the

lowest in over a year

.

Refinery crude runs fell by 463,000 bpd in the week, and refinery utilization rates fell by 2.2 percentage points to 87.3% of total capacity.

"Seasonal refinery maintenance is in full swing, materially reducing crude demand," Smith added.

Gasoline stocks rose by 6.5 million barrels in the week to 227 million barrels, the most since January 2022, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 200,000-barrel rise.

Finished motor gasoline supplied fell to about 8 million bpd, its lowest since the start of this year.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.3 million barrels in the week to 118.8 million barrels, versus expectations for a 300,000-barrel drop, the EIA data showed.

Oil prices fell after the data as markets worried about weak gasoline demand and the build in Cushing stocks.

U.S. crude futures were down $3.28, or more than 3.6%, at $85.95 per barrel by 11:00 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), while Brent crude futures fell $3.35, or 3.7%, to $87.57.

U.S. gasoline futures fell 5% to $2.24 per gallon after the higher-than-expected build in stocks. (Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar in Houston Editing by Marguerita Choy)