Energy futures were mixed Thursday after the government reported a larger-than-expected decline in crude oil inventories and an unexpected rise in heating oil supplies, according to AP. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said oil inventories fell by 4 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected a decline of 1.7 million barrels. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 600,000 barrels. Analysts had expected distillate supplies to fall by 600,000 barrels. Supplies of gasoline rose by 1.9 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 1.3 million-barrel increase. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 15 cents to $99.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the report was released. February gasoline fell 2.01 cents to $2.5488 a gallon on the Nymex, and February heating oil fell 1.03 cents to $2.7301 a gallon. February natural gas fell 6 cents to $7.79 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, February Brent crude rose 8 cents to $97.92 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. In its weekly support report, the EIA said crude supplies at the closely watched Nymex delivery terminal in Cushing, Oklahoma, were unchanged last week at 17.5 million barrels. Falling supplies there are seen as a symptom of a tight market, and those concerns ease when Cushing inventories rise. Refinery activity rose by 1.3 percent last week to 89.4 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected refinery use to increase by 0.4 percentage point. Crude imports rose last week by an average of 204,000 barrels a day to 10 million barrels a day. Gasoline imports rose 136,000 barrels a day to an average of 1.2 million barrels a day. Gasoline demand fell last week by 160,000 barrels, and rose only 0.1 percent over the last four weeks compared to the same period last year.
