Oil prices fell Wednesday after the U.S. government reported a rise in oil inventories.
Inventories of crude oil, gasoline, and distillate fuels -- which include heating oil and diesel -- all rose last week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Analysts had been expecting lower inventories.
Light sweet crude for October delivery fell 51 cents to $69.20 a barrel in morning trading Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The decline extends two days of sharp drops that brought oil futures to $69.71 a barrel on Tuesday, roughly 10 percent below their level of three weeks ago.
Crude inventories rose 2.4 million barrels to 332.8 million barrels in the week ending Aug. 25, or 6.2 percent above year-ago levels, the EIA said Wednesday. Gasoline inventories rose 400,000 barrels to 206.2 million barrels, or 4.6 percent above last year's levels.
Distillate fuels rose 1.3 million barrels to 136.8 million barrels, with just 300,000 barrels of the rise due to heating oil. Distillate inventories are slightly below where they were last year.
U.S. demand for gasoline and distillates remained strong, as did jet fuel demand -- up 2.8 percent over the last four weeks compared to last year, despite a thwarted terror attempt at a London airport that some traders thought might deter travellers.
Refineries operated at 92.9 percent capacity last week, the EIA said.
In other Nymex trading, natural gas futures fell 33.6 cents to $6.54 per 1,000 cubic feet, while gasoline futures fell 1.92 cent to $1.77 a gallon and heating oil futures slipped 0.42 cent to $1.9390 a gallon.
Retail gasoline prices have fallen over the past couple weeks. The average U.S. price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline cost $2.823 on Wednesday, according to AAA, more than 5 percent lower than a month ago.
Post a Comment