U.S. crude oil inventories fell more than expected last week, although gasoline supplies rose, the government said Wednesday. Crude inventories dropped by 4.7 million barrels, or 1.2 percent, to 378.2 million barrels, which was 6.4 percent higher than year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in a report. Analysts had expected a drop of 1.5 million barrels for the week ended July 6, according to McGraw-Hill's Platts. Gasoline inventories increased by 2.8 million barrels, or 1.3 percent, to 207.7 million barrels, which was more than quadruple analyst expectations and 1.9 percent less than year-ago averages. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 6 was 3.9 percent lower than a year earlier, as it averaged about 8.9 million barrels a day. On average, U.S. refineries ran at 92.7 percent of total capacity, a rise of 0.7 percent from the prior week, when analysts expected capacity to build to 92.5 percent. Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.1 million barrels to 120.9 million barrels for the week ended July 6. Analysts had expected stocks to increase by 1 million barrels.
