Jan 4 (Reuters) - U.S. gasoline and distillate inventories posted large builds last week as demand slipped, while crude stocks fell more than expected, the Energy Information Administration said on Thursday.
U.S. gasoline stocks rose by 10.9 million barrels in the week to 237 million barrels, the EIA said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a 215,000 barrel drop.
Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 10.1 million barrels in the week to 125.9 million barrels, versus expectations for a 588,000 barrel rise, the EIA data showed.
Gasoline supplied, an indicator of demand, fell 1.2 million barrels per day, the largest drop since December 2022, to about 8 million barrels per day.
Distillate fuel oil supplied fell to 2.7 million barrels per day, the lowest since 1999.
The builds in refined product have been "driven not only by high refining activity, but also a post holiday lull in implied demand," said Kpler analyst Matt Smith.
Gasoline, heating oil and crude futures extended losses after the report. Gasoline futures fell to 3.3%, while heating oil futures fell 1.8%.
Brent futures were down $1.7, 2.2%, to $76.56 by 11:35 a.m. ET (16:35 GMT), while U.S. crude futures eased $1.55, or 2.2%, to $71.11.
Crude inventories fell by 5.5 million barrels in the last week to 431.1 million barrels, driven by stronger refinery runs and higher year-end exports as companies looked to avoid a year-end storage tax.
Analysts' had expected a 3.7 million-barrel drop, in a Reuters poll.
Crude stocks at the Cushing, Oklahoma, delivery hub rose by 706,000 barrels in the week to Dec 29, the EIA said.
Refinery crude runs rose by 121,000 barrels per day in the last week, EIA said.
Refinery utilization rates rose by 0.2 percentage points in the week to 93.5%.
Net U.S. crude imports fell last week by 758,000 barrels per day, EIA said. (Reporting by Arathy Somasekhar and Georgina McCartney in Houston, Nicole Jao in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
