Energy futures were mixed Wednesday after the U.S. government reported an unexpected increase in crude-oil inventories and a surprising decline in supplies of gasoline and distillates. Light sweet crude for November delivery fell below $80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while gasoline futures rose to near $2 per gallon (3.8 liters). In its weekly petroleum inventory report, the Energy Department said crude supplies rose by 1.2 million barrels last week, in contrast to analysts' expectations that supplies would fall by 400,000 barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by 100,000 barrels last week, while supplies of distillates-including heating oil, diesel, and jet fuel-fell by 1.2 million barrels. Analysts had expected gasoline supplies to grow by 400,000 barrels and distillate inventories to increase by 700,000 barrels. Refinery utilization rose a bigger-than-expected 0.6 percentage point to 87.5 percent of capacity, the report said. Crude imports fell by an average of 189,000 barrels per day (bpd) last week to 10.25 million barrels, while gasoline imports rose by 102,000 barrels to 1.15 million bpd. Demand for gasoline fell by about 115,000 barrels last week.
