US crude oil supplies fall by 200,000 barrels
Energy Department says US crude oil supplies fell slightly last week, gasoline supplies rose
NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's crude oil supplies fell slightly last week, the government said Thursday.
Crude supplies dropped by 0.2 million barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 360 million barrels, which is 0.3 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts expected a drop of 2 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 6, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill.
Gasoline supplies rose by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.8 percent, to 217.6 million barrels. That's 10.1 percent more than year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to shrink by 1 million barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Aug. 30 was down 0.2 percent from a year ago, averaging 9 million barrels a day.
U.S. refineries ran at 92.5 percent of total capacity on average, up 0.8 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to fall to 91 percent.
Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.6 million barrels to 132.2 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 800.000 barrels.
Benchmark crude futures rose 8 cents to $107.48 a barrel in New York.
