Oil Rises Following DOE Report
Crude oil surged more than $3 a barrel and gasoline futures reached a record Wednesday, following a report that showed that gasoline inventories fell for a third straight week, Bloomberg reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures rose $3.80 to close at $104.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg said. Prices are 59% higher than a year ago.
The Department of Energy’s weekly inventory report showed that gasoline stockpiles fell 4.5 million barrels last week, the biggest decline since August. That was well over the 2.8 million-barrel decline forecast by analysts, Bloomberg said.
Oil inventories rose 7.3 million barrels last week, DOE said, marking the 11th gain in 12 weeks. Analysts had called for a gain of 2.3 million barrels, Bloomberg reported.
Distillate inventories, which include diesel, fell by 1.6 million barrels last week, DOE said.
Gasoline futures rose 13.53 cents, or 5.1%, to $2.7745 a gallon on the Nymex. Futures touched $2.7836, an intraday record for gasoline to be blended with ethanol, which began trading on the Nymex in October 2005, Bloomberg reported.
