Crude reserves up more than forecast last week

NEW YORK - Crude inventories rose last week after stagnating in the prior period, while gasoline stockpiles rose less than expected, according to government data released Wednesday.

For the week ended Nov. 14 crude inventories rose by 1.6 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 313.5 million barrels, which is 3.2 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts had expected a boost of 1.2 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 500,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 198.6 million barrels, which is 1.3 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 700,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Nov. 14 was 2.2 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 84.9 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 0.3 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to slip 0.3 percentage point to 84.3 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.5 million barrels to 126.9 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 14. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 900,000 barrels.

At the pump, gas prices rose fell about two cents overnight to a new national average of $2.047 a gallon Wednesday, and remain well below the year-ago average of $3.090 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

In morning trading, light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 24 cents to $54.63 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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