Oil, Gasoline Supplies Rise More Than Expected

Crude inventories and gasoline supplies rose last week, the government said Wednesday.

Crude inventories increased by 1.9 million barrels, or half a percent, to 355.9 million barrels, which is 3.3 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a build of 300,000 barrels for the week ended April 16, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 3.6 million barrels, or 1.6 percent, to 224.9 million barrels. That was above analysts' expectations and 4.8 percent above year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended April 16 was 2.7 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.2 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85.9 percent of total capacity on average, a rise of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to build to 85.94 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.1 million barrels to 148.9 million barrels for the week ended April 16. Analysts expected distillate stocks to increase by 840,000 barrels.

Crude prices fell 53 cents to $83.32 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.