U.S. crude oil inventories declined by 3.03 million barrels in the week ending August 1, reaching a total of 423.66 million barrels, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). This decrease was larger than the forecasted draw of 0.6 million barrels and followed a previous increase of 7.698 million barrels. Gasoline stocks also fell by 1.323 million barrels to 227.08 million barrels, exceeding the expected decline of 1 million barrels. Distillate inventories decreased by 565,000 barrels to 112.97 million barrels, contrary to forecasts of a 0.8 million barrel build. Cushing crude oil inventories rose by 453,000 barrels compared to the previous 690,000 barrel increase. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve added 235,000 barrels during this period. Refinery utilization increased by 1.5%, surpassing the estimated 0.35% decline. Separately, U.S. initial jobless claims rose to 226,000 for the week ending August 2, above the forecast of 222,000 and up from the prior week's revised 219,000. Continuing jobless claims increased to 1.974 million for the week ending July 26, exceeding the expected 1.95 million and marking the highest level since November 2021. Meanwhile, the Baker Hughes rig count for the week ending August 8 showed a slight decrease to 539 total rigs, with oil-directed rigs increasing by one to 411 and gas rigs decreasing by one to 123.