U.S. crude-oil inventories fell during the past week after a tropical storm hit production in the Gulf of Mexico, according to weekly government data released today. The Energy Department said U.S. crude stocks fell by 3.9 million barrels last week to 321 million barrels. Despite the drop, the supply of commercially available crude is "well above the upper end of the average range for this time of the year," the report said. In a separate survey, the private American Petroleum Institute (API) said crude supplies fell by 1.46 million barrels to 321.65 million barrels. "The inventory numbers are a reflection of the outcome of Tropical Storm Cindy," said Doug McIntyre, an analyst for the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration (EIA). McIntyre said the impact of Hurricane Dennis would be seen in next week's inventory numbers, after the deadly storm forced the evacuation of Gulf of Mexico oil platforms last weekend. "We know there was a substantial amount of production shut down as a result of Dennis. I imagine there will be a noticeable drop in domestic crude-oil production," he said. The EIA said gasoline supplies decreased by 2.7 million barrels last week to 212.6 million barrels. In contrast, API reported a rise in gasoline supplies of 684,000 barrels. The EIA also reported the levels of distillates-including heating oil, diesel, and jet fuel-rose by 3.2 million barrels for the week to 120.4 million barrels, above average for this time of year. API reported a bigger rise in distillates of 5.83 million barrels.
