EIA: Crude oil stockpiles added 2.9 million barrels in US last week

Crude oil prices were lower Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration reported a gain in US stockpiles last week.

The EIA said that US crude oil inventories added 2.9 million barrels last week, to 355.7 million barrels, more than the 2.2 million barrel gain that had been expected and taking stockpiles to 0.4 percent above last year’s levels.

Gasoline inventories were down by 2.7 million barrels last week to 217 million barrels, more than stockpiles were expected do decline and 3.5 percent below last year at this time, while distillates added 700,000 barrels against an expected decline of 1.4 million barrels.

May contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down 59 cents to $104.20 per barrel right around the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while the most recent report had Brent crude down 59 cents to $115.05 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex April gasoline futures were up 2 cents to $3.06 per gallon, while April heating oil futures dropped just less than half a cent, to $3.04 per gallon but May natural gas futures were up 9 cents to $4.36 per million British thermal units.

The price of natural gas was up after US President Barack Obama said that his goal is to cut oil imports into the US by one-third by 2025, with the plan counting on using more natural gas produced in the US, as well as more use of biofuels, to make up for the drop in use of foreign oil.

Also pushing natural gas prices higher was a weather forecast that said weather in the US will remain unseasonably cold in April and that cooler than normal temperatures could persist in the northern US through May or June.

The retail price of gasoline in the United States was up nearly a cent overnight, to $3.595 per gallon on average for regular unleaded.