Oil Falls Following DOE Report

Oil prices dipped Wednesday following an Energy Department report that showed distillate inventories, which include diesel fuel and home heating oil, rose last week.

Crude oil futures fell 92 cents to close at $87.49 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

Distillate stockpiles gained 1.4 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly inventory report released Wednesday.

Crude oil supplies fell by almost 8 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies rose 4 million barrels, DOE reported.

Meanwhile, OPEC decided Wednesday to hold oil output ceilings steady, the Associated Press reported.

Cartel ministers, meeting in the United Arab Emirates, said OPEC would leave output unchanged because the world was “well supplied” with oil and that crude reserves were at comfortable levels, AP said.

The increase was pegged in part to a Department of Energy report that showed petroleum supplies fell last week, Bloomberg said.