US crude oil supplies grow by 1.8 million barrels

[November 03, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's crude oil and gasoline supplies increased last week, the government said Wednesday.

Crude supplies rose by 1.8 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 339.5 million barrels, which is 7.8 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected an increase of 1.1 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 28, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies grew by 1.4 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 206.3 million barrels. That's 2.8 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to shrink by 1.5 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Oct. 28 was 4 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 8.7 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 85.3 percent of total capacity on average, up 0.4 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to decline to 84.8 percent.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, decreased by 3.6 million barrels to 141.9 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to decline by 2.2 million barrels.

Benchmark crude rose $1 to $93.19 at midday in New York.

[Associated Press]

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