Oil Supplies Down More Than Expected

Oil Supplies Down More Than Expected

Crude oil inventories fell by 4.6 million barrels last week to 302.2 million barrels — 13.5 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a draw of only 1.4 million barrels, accorgding to a survey by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 1 million barrels, close to analysts’ estimates for stockpiles to grow by 1.1 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended June 6 was 1.3 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging over 9.3 million barrels a day.

At the same time, refineries ran at 88.6 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 1.1 percentage points from the prior week.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.3 million barrels to 114 million barrels for the week ended June 6. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 1.7 million barrels.

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