U.S. crude-oil inventories fell slightly last week, declining by 100,000 barrels to 384.6 million barrels, or 4.2 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department reported Wednesday. Analysts had expected a drop of 1 million barrels. Gasoline supplies grew by 3.3 million barrels, or 1.7 percent, to 203.5 million barrels, the department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its weekly petroleum report. Despite the gain, gasoline inventories are more than 5 percent below year ago levels. Demand for gasoline over the last four weeks was 4 percent lower than during the same period a year ago, averaging 8.8 million barrels a day. Inventories of distillates-including diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel-rose by 2.3 million barrels to 120 million barrels, the EIA said. Supplies of both gasoline and distillates rose more than analysts had expected. U.S. refineries operated at 91 percent of total capacity, up 2.9 percentage points from the previous week. Analysts expected capacity to rise slightly to 88.7 percent. On Wall Street, benchmark crude was up more than $1.50 to near $86 per barrel in midday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
