Crude inventories and gasoline supplies fell last week, the government said Wednesday.
Crude inventories fell by 0.4 million barrels, or .01 percent, to 343.4 million barrels, which is 13.9 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts had expected a decline of 1.9 million barrels for the week ended Aug. 28, according to a survey by Platts.
Gasoline inventories fell by 3 million barrels, or 1.4 percent, to 205.1 million barrels. The decline was steeper than analyst expectations and 4.1 percent above year-ago levels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Aug. 28 was 0.5 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.2 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 87.2 percent of total capacity on average, a rise of 3.1 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to build to 84.5 percent.
