Oil Tops $94 a Barrel Following DOE Inventories Report
Oil rose to more than $94 a barrel Wednesday, the highest closing price in almost four months, following a Department of Energy report that said supplies declined last week, Bloomberg News reported.
Crude futures rose 96 cents to $94.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange — the highest closing price since Sept. 18 — following DOE’s report, which said that oil inventories fell by 1 million barrels last week.
The supply drop was in contrast to analysts’ median forecast of a 2.2 million-barrel increase, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline inventories rose 1.9 million barrels, lower than analysts’ 2.7 million-barrel median forecast. Distillates — which include diesel and heating oil — rose by 1.7 million barrels, slightly higher than Bloomberg’s forecast.
Oil had dropped by the most in almost a month on Tuesday, declining almost $1 to finish at $93.28 a barrel.
