EIA inventories push crude prices lower

Crude oil prices were lower Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported in its weekly inventories report that crude oil and gasoline stockpiles grew in the US last week.

At about an hour before the close of floor trade, January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had dropped $1.52 to $76.86 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January Brent crude was $1.76 lower to $77.61 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The EIA said that crude oil inventories were up by 2.1 million barrels in the week ending 27 November to 339.9 million barrels, while gasoline stockpiles added 4 million barrels to 214.1 million barrels even though refineries have cut back operations.

The amount of distillates, including heating oil and diesel fuel, in storage dropped by 1.2 million barrels last week to 165.7 million barrels.

Nymex January gasoline futures were down 5 cents to $2 per gallon in midday trade, but the retail price of gasoline in the US was up a bit overnight, to $2.629 per gallon on average nationally, 6.2 cents less per gallon than last month but almost 82 cents higher than last year at this time.