Crude oil supplies fell last week, while gasoline supplies grew, the government said Thursday.
Crude supplies dropped by four million barrels, or 1.1%, to 353.1 million barrels, which is 1.9% below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts expected a decline of 1.7 million barrels for the week ended Sept. 2, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline supplies grew by 200,000 barrels, or 0.1%, to 208.8 million barrels. That was 7.2% below year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to fall by 900,000 barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 2 was 2.9% lower than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.
U.S. refineries ran at 89% of total capacity on average, down 0.2 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to drop to 88.1%.
Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 700,000 barrels to 156.8 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to increase by 600,000 barrels.
