US crude oil supplies grow by 3.9 million barrels

[April 19, 2012]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's crude oil supplies increased last week, the government said Wednesday.

Crude supplies grew by 3.9 million barrels, or 1.1 percent, to 369 million barrels, which is 3.4 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a rise of 400,000 barrels for the week ended April 13, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies fell by 3.7 million barrels, or 1.7 percent, to 214 million barrels. That's 2.8 percent more than year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to grow by 140,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended April 13 was 2.8 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 8.7 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 84.6 percent of total capacity on average, up 0.8 percentage point from the prior week. That was in line with analysts' expectations.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped by 2.9 million barrels to 129 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to be unchanged at 131.9 million barrels.

Benchmark crude fell 40 cents to $103.80 a barrel in New York.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.