Crude oil stockpiles tumble by 4 million barrels

Energy Dept. says crude oil inventories, gasoline stockpiles fell last week

• By Deborah Jian Lee, AP Energy Writer
• On 10:39 am EST, Wednesday November 4, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) -- Crude inventories fell last week, along with declining gasoline supplies, the government said Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 4 million barrels, or 1.2 percent, to 335.9 million barrels, which is 7.6 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts had expected a build of 1.3 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 30, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories fell by 300,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 208.3 million barrels. That was 7 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected a build of 800,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Oct. 30 was unchanged from a year earlier, averaging nearly 9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 80.6 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 1.2 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to build to 82.2 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 400,000 million barrels to 167.4 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 30. Analysts expected distillate stocks to drop by 1 million barrels.

Crude prices rose $1.20 to $80.80 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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