Oil Slides Toward Multiyear Lows

U.S. refineries ran at 81.6% of total capacity on average, a drop of 1.9% from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to slip to 83%. Refiners took in 214,000 fewer barrels of crude last week and gasoline production fell, the EIA reported.

The companies that own refineries are seeing the same dour headlines about job losses, and have slashed production as they try do match supply with demand. They also have curtailed production for maintenance typically performed this time of year.

EIA said Thursday that natural gas storage levels in the U.S. dropped less than expected last week, but remain above year-ago levels. In its weekly report, EIA said inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states fell by 159 billion cubic feet to about 2.02 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Friday.

Analysts had expected a drop of 165 billion to 170 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures rose less than a penny to $1.278 a gallon, as did heating oil, which rose to $1.3195 a gallon. Natural gas for March delivery fell 4.1 cents to $4.491 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, the March Brent contract rose 22 cents to $44.50 on the ICE Futures exchange.

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Associated Press writers Jake Neubacher in Vienna, Alex Kennedy in Singapore, and Christopher S. Rugaber and Marcy Gordon in Washington contributed to this report.