Oil Drops Following DOE Inventory Report

Oil declined more than $1 to near $95 a barrel following a Department of Energy report that showed crude supplies fell and gasoline stockpiles rose last week.

Crude futures dropped $1.06 to $95.12 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg News reported. Oil finished the last three trading days at over $96 a barrel.

DOE said in its weekly report that crude supplies fell by about 340,000 barrels last week. Analysts had forecast a 1 milion-barrel decline, Bloomberg reported.

Gasoline inventories jumped by 3 million barrels, in contrast to a projected 300,000-barrel decline, Bloomberg said.

Distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.1 million barrels, DOE said.