Oil, gasoline futures lower on inventories report

Crude oil prices were lower on Wednesday after the first increase in US gasoline stockpiles in 13 weeks was reported. Inventories were still below last year’s levels, however. The US Energy Information Administration reported that gasoline stockpiles rose by 400,000 barrels in the week ending May 4, to 193.5 million barrels, a bit better than analysts had anticipated. Distillate inventories wee also up, rising 1.7 million barrels to 118.8 million barrels, while crude oil stockpiles were up by 5.6 million barrels to 341.2 million barrels.

Brent crude June deliveries fell $1.01 to $64.53 per barrel in London on the Intercontinental Exchange, while June contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude dropped by $1.16 to $61.10 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Heating oil futures were 3.7 cents lower to $1.7929 per gallon, while gasoline futures were down 1.45 cents to $2.1900 per gallon. Pump prices, meanwhile, were up to a nationwide average of $3.03 per gallon for regular unleaded gasoline, according to a survey by the American Automobile Association. The average pump prices in the US was at $2.78 per gallon last month. Last year at this time, the average was $2.90 per gallon.

Before the EIA report was released, crude prices had risen on a report that four American oil workers in Nigeria had been taken by armed attackers.