U.S. crude inventories rose last week while analysts
expected them to fall, according to data released Thursday by the U.S.
Department of Energy.
Crude oil
stockpiles rose 3.9 million barrels to 327.5 million barrels, compared with an
average survey estimate of a drop of 2.2 million barrels. The American
Petroleum Institute, an industry group, reported a 9.6 million barrel build in
its weekly report released late Wednesday.
Both sets of data were released a day late because of the holiday week. Oil
futures moved lower on the news, down 70 cents, or 0.7%, at $98.66 a barrel on
the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline futures also fell, but heating oil
futures were up.
Gasoline stockpiles fell 692,000 barrels to 217.7 million barrels, the
department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report,
compared with a 500,000 drop forecast in a Dow Jones Newswires survey of
analysts.
Distillate stocks, which include heating oil
and diesel fuel, rose 1.2 million barrels to 140.4 million barrels, compared
with analysts' forecast of a 1 million barrel drop.
Refining capacity utilization fell 0.7 percentage point to 84.2%. Analysts had
expected utilization to remain unchanged.
API pegged refinery utilization at 83.3% last week, up 0.2 percentage point. The
industry group reported that showed that stockpiles of gasoline rose 1.9
million barrels and distillates rose by 600,000 barrels.