Oil Prices Fall; Energy Stocks Advance

Crude futures moved lower Wednesday even after the Energy Information Administration released new oil inventory figures that showed a larger-than expected drop in gasoline stores.

West Texas crude for June delivery was recently down $1.15 at $124.65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude tumbled $1.81 to $122.49 a barrel.

Heating oil was down 5 cents at $3.65 a gallon, and reformulated gasoline shed a penny to $3.19 a gallon. Near-term natural gas was recently trading 23 cents higher at $11.65 per million British thermal units.

The EIA's weekly inventory report did little to move energy markets. Crude stores grew by 176,000 barrels during the week ended May 14, whereas aanalysts were expecting a 2.25 million-barrel build, according to Bloomberg. Distillate inventories increased by 1.34 million barrels, topping the 1 million-barrel expansion that was expected. Gasoline inventories fell by 1.72 million barrels, vs. the 220,000-barrel build that analysts were predicting.

The data suggest that refineries are finally coming out of their spring slumber and increasing throughput capacity. Refinery utilization grew by 1.6 percentage points to 86.6% during the week. Crude inputs into U.S. refineries jumped by 405,000 barrels a day from the previous week.

Meanwhile, energy stocks were mostly higher, following the broader market. BP BP rose 1.3% to $72.52, and ConocoPhillips COP was up 0.9% at $89.38. Exxon MobilXOM climbed 1.2% to $90.72.

Among services firms, Halliburton HAL was down 0.3% at $48.73, and Transocean RIG was 1.6% higher at $151.30.