Gasoline inventory gains push oil prices lower

Crude oil prices fell Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its latest weekly US inventories report, showing that both crude oil and gasoline stockpiles rose last week.

While crude oil inventories did not rise as much as had been anticipated, adding 778,000 barrels rather than the 1.9 million barrels that had been anticipated, it still left US inventories 9.1 percent above average for the time of year.

Gasoline stockpiles, however, were up 1.62 million barrels last week against an expected drop of 1 million barrels during the week.

December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down $2.12 to $77.43 per barrel by just before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude December contracts dropped $2.11 to $75.81 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex November gasoline futures fell 7 cents to $2 per gallon while December heating oil was down 4 cents to $2.04 per gallon and December natural gas dropped 9 cents to $5.19 per million British thermal units.

Consumption of gasoline was down 1 percent last week, according to the EIA, and refineries operated at 81.8 percent of capacity, slightly higher than the week before.