The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday that crude, gasoline, and distillate stocks in the United States decreased last week. It noted that oil inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, fell by 970,000 barrels for the week ending March 31. The administration indicated that U.S. refiners' crude oil consumption declined by 198,000 barrels per day last week, and refinery utilization rates decreased by 0.7 percentage points over the week. Crude stocks dropped by 3.7 million barrels to 470 million barrels, compared to analysts' predictions surveyed by Reuters, which estimated a decrease of 2.3 million barrels. The data from the Energy Information Administration showed that distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.6 million barrels over the past week to 113.1 million, while a decrease of 0.4 million was expected. It also mentioned that U.S. net crude oil imports increased by 1.16 million barrels per day last week.