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NEW YORK - Crude-oil inventories dropped last week for the fourth week in a row, and gasoline stockpiles tumbled more than expected, according to government data released Wednesday.
The decreases continue to reflect the partial or complete shutdowns of energy-related facilities after Hurricanes Ike and Gustav roared through the Gulf Coast within the past month. For the week ended Sept. 19, crude-oil inventories fell by 1.5 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 290.2 million barrels, which is 7.8 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected an increase of 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill (nyse: MHP - news - people ) Cos. Gasoline inventories dropped by 5.9 million barrels, or 3.2 percent, to 178.7 million barrels, which is 9.6 percent under year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to fall by 5.1 million barrels. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 19 was 3.5 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 9 million barrels a day. At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 66.7 percent of total capacity on average, a loss of 10.7 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to slip 3.5 percent to 73.9 percent. Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, slid by 4.2 million barrels to 125.4 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 19. Analysts expected distillate stocks to decrease by 1.8 million barrels. At the pump, gas prices fell about a penny overnight to a new national average of $3.715 gallon Wednesday, but they remain well above the year-ago average of about $2.811 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. In morning trading, light, sweet crude for October delivery rose 78 cents to $107.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/09/24/ap5465069.html |