U.S. crude oil inventories fell by 900,000 barrels last week, accompanied by a significant decline in distillate inventories. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed that for the week ending on the latest reporting date, U.S. crude oil inventories decreased by 900,000 barrels to 409.8 million barrels; distillate inventories dropped by 3.6 million barrels to 99.3 million barrels; and gasoline inventories declined by 200,000 barrels to 209 million barrels. Excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), total petroleum inventories decreased by 8.2 million barrels. The refinery utilization rate came in at 94.5%, up 1.7 percentage points sequentially; total petroleum demand, calculated on a four-week moving average basis, rose 4.2% year-over-year.