EIA: Crude oil inventories rise but gasoline in storage declines

Crude oil prices were unsteady Wednesday as the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories report, but by less than half an hour before the end of floor trade March contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude had dropped 20 cents to $77.03 per barre on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while at last report Brent crude was up 28 cents to $76.34 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The EIA reported that crude oil stockpiles in the US were up by 2.3 million barrels in the week ending 29 January when they had been expected to decline, while distillates inventories were down by 1 million barrels, slightly less of a decline than had been anticipated.

US gasoline inventories were down by 1.3 million barrels to 228.1 million barrels in storage, still up 7.9 million barrels from last year at this time.

The drop in gasoline stockpiles came as the EIA reported that US refineries operated at only 77.7 percent of capacity last week, their lowest level of operation in history aside from shutdowns in 2005 and 2008 due to hurricanes in the US Gulf Coast region, as demand remains weak.

According to the EIA, demand for gasoline was down 0.5 percent from last year in the past four weeks.

Nymex March gasoline futures added a cent to $2.03 per gallon in afternoon trade, but the retail price of a gallon of gasoline was down another half-cent overnight, to $2.656 per gallon on average nationally, about the same price it sold for last month at this time.