AlHijjah 22, 1433, Nov 7, 2012, SPA -- Oil futures fell sharply Wednesday after the U.S. government reported growing supplies of crude, gasoline, and distillates. Benchmark light sweet crude was down more than $3.50, or 4 percent, to near $85 a barrel in late-morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Energy Department said crude inventories grew by 1.8 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 374.8 million barrels, which is 10.9 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected a smaller gain. Gasoline supplies grew by 2.9 million barrels, or 1.4 percent, to 202.4 million barrels. The level is 0.9 percent below year-ago levels, the department's Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in its weekly petroleum-inventory report. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to shrink. Demand for gasoline over the last four weeks was 0.2 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging 8.6 million barrels per day (bpd), the EIA said. U.S. refineries operated at 85.4 percent of capacity on average, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous week. Inventories of distillates-including diesel, heating oil, and jet fuel-rose by 100,000 barrels to 118.1 million barrels, the report said, in contrast to analyst expectations for a significant decrease in supplies.
