Surprise decline in US crude, gasoline, distillates inventories

Crude oil prices rose Wednesday as the US Energy Information Administration said that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillates all dropped last week.

Stockpiles of crude oil dropped by 5.3 million barrels to 316.6 million barrels in the week ending 19 October, according to the EIA, while gasoline inventories fell 2 million barrels to 193.8 million barrels and distillates in storage were down by 1.8 million barrels to 134.5 million barrels.

The declines were a surprise, especially for gasoline, which was expected to gain 1.1 million barrels in inventory.

December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were $1.83 higher to $87.10 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for December delivery gained $1.51 to $84.36 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex November gasoline added 4 cents to $2.15 per gallon, while December heating oil was 4 cents higher to $2.36 per gallon and December gas was up 19 cents to $7.66 per million British thermal units.

Refinery activity dropped 0.2 percent to 87.1 percent last week against an expected gain of 0.3 percent.