Oil prices fell Wednesday after the Energy Department said crude oil and gasoline supplies jumped much more than expected last week. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, fell less than forecast.
The Energy Information Administration report injected a dose of bearish sentiment into a market that has set new records in 11 of the past 12 sessions. Crude oil supplies jumped by 6.2 million barrels last week, more than three times the 1.6 million barrel increase analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires were expecting.
It was the eight increase in crude supplies in nine weeks, putting oil inventories back on a growth track after a one-week decline.
Gasoline supplies, meanwhile, rose by 1.7 million barrels last week, well above the expected 300,000 barrel increase, and distillate supplies dropped by 1.2 million barrels, less than the expected 2 million barrel decline.
Light, sweet crude for April delivery fell $1.47 to $107.28 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
At the pump, however, gas prices continued their charge into record territory Wednesday, following crude's recent climb. The national average price of a gallon of gas rose 1.9 cents overnight to $3.246 a gallon, a new record, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
Gas prices are following crude's surge, and could rise as high as $3.75 a gallon this spring, analysts say.
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