Crude-oil inventories rose last week after an unexpected drop in the prior week, according to government data published Wednesday.
For the week ended March 7, crude-oil inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels, or 2 percent, to 311.6 million barrels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. While the stockpiles were 2.8 percent below year-ago levels, analysts had expected a gain of only 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.
Gasoline inventories rose by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 236 million barrels, which were 11.2 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by only 300,000 barrels last week.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended March 7 was 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 0.9 percentage point. Analysts expected a gain of 0.1 percentage point.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.2 million barrels to 116.4 million barrels for the week ended March 7. Analysts expected distillate stocks to drop by 2 million barrels.
At the pump, gas prices set a record high for a second straight day, rising nearly 2 cents overnight to a national average of about $3.25 a gallon Wednesday. The year-ago average was $2.54 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
In morning trading, light, sweet crude for April delivery fell $1.40 to $107.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
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