Energy futures retreated from earlier highs Wednesday after the U.S. government reported a surprising increase in crude-oil inventories and an unexpectedly large decline in refinery activity. Light sweet crude for November delivery rose to near $80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, retreating from early gains well above $80. October gasoline futures fell to just over $2 per gallon (3.8 liters), reversing early gains of more than 2 cents. In its weekly petroleum inventory report, the Energy Department said that crude supplies rose by 1.8 million barrels last week, in contrast to analysts' expectations of a 1.8 million-barrel decline. Gasoline inventories rose by 600,000 barrels last week, three times the 200,000-barrel increase expected by analysts. Supplies of distillates-including heating oil, diesel, and jet fuel-rose by 1.6 million barrels, more than expected. Refinery utilization plunged by 2.7 percentage points to 86.9 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected a slight decline. Crude-oil imports rose an average of 637,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week to 10.4 million bpd. Gasoline imports grew by 41,000 bpd last week to an average of 1.05 million bpd. Demand for gasoline fell last week by 12,000 barrels, the department said.
