Crude, Gas Reserves Rise as Demand Erodes

By Ernest Scheyder

NEW YORK -- Crude stockpiles rose last week despite expectations for a steep drop, while gasoline reserves jumped less than forecast, according to government data released Wednesday.

For the week ended Dec. 26 crude inventories rose by 500,000 barrels, or 0.2%, to 318.7 million barrels, which is 10.4% above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts had expected a drop of 1.75 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 800,000 barrels, or 0.4%, to 208.1 million barrels, which is 3.4% below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 1.7 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Dec. 26 was 2.2% lower than a year earlier, averaging 9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 82.5% of total capacity on average, a drop of 2.2% from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to remain at 84.7%.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 700,000 barrels to 136 million barrels for the week ended Dec. 26. Analysts expected distillate stocks to jump by 1.3 million barrels.

At the pump, gas prices rose less than a penny overnight to a national average of $1.617 a gallon Wednesday, but remain well below the year-ago average of $3.043 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

After the report was released, light, sweet crude fell 8 cents a gallon to $38.95 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.