US crude inventories fell 3.96 million barrels last week, as a decline in imports outpaced lower crude exports and refinery runs, an analysis of Energy Information Administration data showed Wednesday. The stock draw was led by the US Gulf Coast, where inventories fell 4.76 million barrels to 239.85 million barrels. USGC crude imports fell 368,000 b/d to 1.77 million b/d, while US crude exports, which are primarily from the USGC, fell 289,000 b/d to 2.32 million b/d. USGC refinery inputs edged lower by 18,000 b/d to 8.89 million b/d, the EIA data showed. The crude stock draw was slightly bullish for NYMEX crude futures. While the draw came in above analysts’ expectations of a 2.2 million-barrel decline, it left US crude stocks at 466.6 million barrels, a roughly 2% surplus to the five-year average. […]