Oil Rises Past $81 Following DOE Inventory Report
Oil rose past $81 a barrel early Thursday following the Department of Energy’s weekly report that showed crude supplies increased last week, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures more than 50 cents to $81.15 a barrel in early New York Mercantile Exchange trading, a day after DOE said stockpiles improved by 7.3 million barrels last week to the highest level since August.
Analysts had forecast oil supplies for the week ended Saturday to improve by 1.7 million barrels, Bloomberg said.
Gasoline inventories fell 2.7 million barrels and distillates, which include diesel, dropped by 2.4 million barrels, DOE said in its weekly report.
Analysts had forecast gas stockpiles would decline by 1.5 million barrels and distillates to decline by about 1 million barrels, Bloomberg said.
