The Energy Department said Wednesday that the nation’s crude oil and gasoline supplies rose last week, The Associated Press reports.
Crude supplies grew by 900,000 barrels, or 0.2 percentage point, to 345.9 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 11. The total was 3.4 percent more than a year ago.
Analysts expected oil supplies to grow by 2.8 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline supplies increased by 200,000 barrels, or 0.1 percentage point, to 241.1 million barrels. That was 3.9 percent above year-ago levels, the department’s Energy Information Administration said in a weekly report. Analysts predicted supplies would increase by 1.7 million barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the past four weeks was flat at an average of 8.6 million barrels a day.
U.S. refineries ran at 81.2 percent of total capacity on average, a decline of 3.5 percent from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to fall to 0.4 percentage point to 84.3 percent.
Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, declined by 3.1 million barrels, or 1.9 percent, to 161.3 million barrels. The total was 5.2 percent more than year-ago levels.
Analysts expected distillate stocks to decline by 1.1 million barrels.
Oil prices rose 46 cents to $84.78 in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
