Foreign news on May 22, a preliminary survey released on Monday showed that crude oil and distillate inventories in the United States were expected to increase last week, and gasoline inventories may decline.
On average, the six analysts surveyed estimated that U.S. crude oil inventories were expected to rise by about 500,000 barrels in the week ending May 19.
U.S. crude inventories rose by 5 million barrels in the week to May 12 to 467.6 million barrels, compared with analysts' forecasts for a drop of 900,000 barrels.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) will release the industry version of the crude oil inventory report at 4:30 Beijing time on Wednesday, and the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) will release the official weekly crude oil inventory report at 22:30 Beijing time on Wednesday.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, are seen rising by about 500,000 barrels in the week to May 19, while gasoline inventories are seen falling by about 1.1 million barrels.
Refinery capacity utilization was expected to rise 0.7 percentage points last week, from 92.0% in the week ended May 12, the survey showed.