Oil and gasoline inventories increased last week while distillate stockpiles dipped, the government said Wednesday.
Commercial crude oil inventories rose by 1.1 million barrels, or 0.3%, to 359.7 million barrels for the week ending Nov. 26, the Energy Department said. The total is 5.8% more than the year-ago level and above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year.
Gasoline inventories increased by 600,000 barrels, or 0.3%, to 210.2 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. The total was 1.8% less than the year-ago level but in the upper half of the average range. Analysts expected supplies to rise by 1.4 million barrels.
During the past four weeks, demand for gasoline has averaged 8.9 million barrels a day, which was 0.5% less than the year-ago period.
U.S. refineries ran at 82.6% of total capacity on average, compared with 85.5% in the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to increase to 85.94%.
