Oil prices fall 2 pct on big supply increase

[October 26, 2011]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices are down more than 2 percent after the government said U.S. supplies grew much more than expected last week.

Benchmark crude fell $1.92, or 2.1 percent, to $91.24 per barrel Wednesday, and Brent crude fell $1.28 to $109.64 in London.

The price of oil fell early in the day after an industry survey said U.S. supplies increased last week. The Department of Energy later backed that up by reporting an increase of 4.7 million barrels in the nation's storage tanks. Analysts expected supplies to grow by only 200,000 barrels, according to Platts, the energy-information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Meanwhile, gasoline pump prices fell less than a penny on Wednesday to a national average of $3.441 per gallon.

[Associated Press; By CHRIS KAHN]

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