Energy futures jumped Wednesday after the government reported larger-than-expected declines in gasoline and oil inventories and an unexpected decline in refinery activity, accoridng to AP. Light, sweet crude for October delivery rose $1 to $72.73 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while September gasoline rose 4.01 cents to $2.0555 a gallon on the Nymex. In London, October Brent crude rose $1.05 to $71.60 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange. Nymex heating oil rose 3.40 cents to $2.0303 a gallon, and natural gas futures rose 2.5 cents to $5.618 per 1,000 cubic feet. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline inventories fell 3.6 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 24. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected a 1.8 million barrel decline. Refinery utilization fell by 1.3 percentage points to 90.3 percent of capacity, countering analyst expectations for no change. Crude oil inventories fell 3.5 million barrels, much more than the 800,000 barrel decrease analysts had expected. Distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, increased 900,000 barrels, more than the 600,000 barrel increase analysts had forecast. Gasoline imports rose 66,000 barrels to 993,000 barrels a day on average, and crude oil imports fell 993,000 barrels to an average of 9.8 million barrels a day. Gasoline demand averaged more than 9.6 million barrels a day over the last 4 weeks, 0.5 percent above the same period last year, the EIA said.
