Inventories news sends oil higher

Crude oil, gasoline, and distillate prices were up on Wednesday after the release of the weekly US inventories figures.  While crude oil inventories were up by 2.1 million barrels in the week ending March 31, well above the forecast rise of 1.1 million barrels, gasoline stockpiles were down by 4.4 million barrels against a predicted decline of just 1.6 million barrels.  Distillates inventories, also expected to be down by 1.6 million barrels, actually fell by a much larger 2.6 million barrels.

Prices on West Texas Intermediate crude for May delivery added 38 cents to $66.61 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude May contracts were up 47 cents to $66.86 per barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange.

Nymex unleaded gasoline prices for May added 5.4 cents to $1.95 per gallon.  US refineries operated at only 95.9 percent of capacity last week, producing around 8.1 million barrels of gasoline per day, and traders feared that they would not be able to cope with increased summer demand.  Meanwhile, May Nymex heating oil added 1.7 cents to $1.8730 per gallon.