HOUSTON, Feb. 1 -- U.S. crude oil refinery inputs averaged 15 million barrels per day (b/d) during the week ending Jan. 27, 19,000 b/d less than the previous week's average, according to a weekly report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration on Wednesday.

Refineries operated at 85.7 percent of their operable capacity last week, said the Weekly Petroleum Data report.

Last week, both gasoline and distillate fuel production increased, averaging 9.4 million b/d and 4.7 million b/d respectively.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, rose by 4.1 million barrels from the previous week to 452.7 million barrels, about 4 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.

Total motor gasoline inventories surged by 2.6 million barrels last week, about 7 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.

Both finished gasoline inventories and blending components inventories increased last week. Distillate fuel inventories surged by 2.3 million barrels last week, about 17 percent below the five-year average for this time of year.

Propane/propylene inventories went down by 2.4 million barrels from last week, around 27 percent above the five-year average for this time of year.

Total commercial petroleum inventories increased by 1.6 million barrels last week.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 19.4 million b/d, down by 10.5 percent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 8.1 million b/d, down by 1.9 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 3.9 million b/d over the past four weeks, down by 13.1 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied was up 0.6 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.

  - Xinhua