Crude inventories rose last week and gasoline supplies grew as well, the government said Wednesday.
Crude inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels, or 0.8 percent, to 335.6 million barrels, which is 10.6 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Gasoline inventories rose by 5.4 million barrels, or 2.6 percent, to 213.1 million barrels. That exceeded analyst expectations and was 10.7 percent above year-ago levels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 18 was 4.5 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85.6 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 1.3 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to build to 86 percent.
