Crude oil stockpiles climb by 1M barrels

Crude inventories rose last week, while gasoline supplies dropped, the Associated Press reports.

Crude supplies increased by 1 million barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 344 million barrels, which is 4.1 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said Wednesday in its weekly report.

Analysts had expected a build of 1.9 million barrels for the week ended March 12, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 227.3 million barrels. That drop was nearly in line with analyst expectations and 5.2 percent above year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended March 12 was 1.3 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 8.9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 80.6 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to build to 80.85 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels to 148.1 million barrels for the week ended March 12. Analysts expected distillate stocks to drop 1.6 million barrels.

Crude prices rose 54 cents to $82.25 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.