Oil prices fell for a second consecutive day on Thursday after the U.S. government reported that supplies of gasoline, heating oil, and diesel rose more than analysts expected last week. Warmer-than-usual weather in the eastern United States has led to an increase in inventories, therefore lowering prices. Light sweet crude moved toward a six-week low, falling nearly $2 to below $57 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, crude for February delivery fell $2.73 to $58.32 a barrel, the biggest one-day drop since August 2005. U.S. crude inventories fell last week by 1.3 million barrels to 319.7 million barrels, the Energy Department said in its weekly petroleum report. Analysts had expected crude supplies to rise slightly. However, inventories of distillates-including heating oil, diesel, and jet fuel-increased by 2 million barrels to 135.6 million barrels as warm winter weather reduced demand. Gasoline inventories grew by 5.6 million barrels to 209.5 million barrels. Because of warm temperatures, heating-oil demand has been 20 percent to 30 percent below normal for most of the past five weeks.
