US crude oil supplies fall by 1.4 million barrels
The United States's crude oil supplies fell last week, the government said Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) - Crude supplies dropped by 1.4 million barrels, or 0.4 percent, to 359.1 million barrels, which is 0.5 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts expected a drop of 1 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 16, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill.
Gasoline supplies fell by 4 million barrels, or 1.8 percent, to 218.4 million barrels. That s 7.7 percent more than year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to shrink by 1.5 million barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Aug. 9 was up 2 percent from a year ago, averaging 9.2 million barrels a day.
US refineries ran at 91 percent of total capacity on average, up 1.6 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to fall to 88.9 percent.
Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 900,000 barrels to 129.4 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 1 million barrels.
