03:57 PM EST, 02/20/2025 (MT Newswires) -- Commercial crude stockpiles in the US jumped more than projected last week even as distillate fuel and propane inventories fell, government data showed Thursday.

Inventories of crude, excluding the strategic petroleum reserve, increased 4.6 million barrels to 432.5 million barrels through the week ended Friday, the Energy Information Administration said. The consensus was for a gain of 3 million barrels, according to a Bloomberg poll.

Distillate fuel stocks declined by 2.1 million barrels, while propane and propylene fell by 3.6 million barrels. Total commercial petroleum inventories ticked up 200,000 barrels last week.

Refineries operated at 84.9% capacity, dipping from 85% the week earlier. Gasoline production decreased, while distillate fuel output picked up, the data showed.

West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 0.5% at $72.47 a barrel in Thursday late-afternoon trade, while Brent was up 0.5% at $76.51.

"Supply uncertainty continues to support the oil market," ING Bank said in a Thursday note.

The European Union on Wednesday imposed a fresh round of sanctions against Russia, including targeting additional Russian shadow-fleet tankers that have been used to trade oil under the radar of Western sanctions. "While similar sanctions from the US on Russia have not led to a significant drop in export volumes, floating storage has increased. This has buyers less willing to accept sanctioned vessels," ING Head of Commodities Strategy Warren Patterson said.

Supply disruptions have also come from North Dakota amid extremely cold weather, according to Patterson.

"However, potential restarts of oil flows from Iraq's Kurdistan region, and soon, are offsetting these supply risks," he said. "There's talk that these flows could resume soon, after being offline since early 2023."