US crude oil inventories up

The weekly inventories report from the US Energy Information Administration, released on Wednesday, showed that inventories of crude oil, gasoline, and distillates such as heating oil had risen much more than had been anticipated by analysts.

Crude oil stockpiles were up by 4.9 million barrels in the week ending February 10, when they had been expected to rise by 1.2 million barrels. Gasoline inventories were up 2.2 million barrels, well above the 1.6 million barrels expected. And, while distillates stockpiles had been expected to drop by 700,000 barrels, they actually grew by 900,000 barrels during the week.

At just after noon, in response to the EIA report, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was trading at $60.25 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude was at $59.00 per barrel. At the same time, gasoline on Nymex was trading at 1.52 per gallon, while Nymex heating oil was at 1.65 per gallon.