NEW YORK -- Crude inventories rose less than analysts forecast last week and gasoline stockpiles grew as demand for motor fuel continued to fall, according to government data released Wednesday.
For the week ended April 3 crude supplies increased by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 361.1 million barrels, which is 15.2 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts had expected a boost of 2.3 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline inventories rose by 600,000 barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 217.4 million barrels, which is 1.4 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to fall by 1.5 million barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended April 3 was 0.2 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging about 9.1 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 81.8 percent of total capacity on average, an increase of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to increase 0.25 percentage point to 81.95 percent.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.4 million barrels to 140.8 million barrels for the week ended April 3. Analysts expected distillate stocks to slip 600,000 barrels.
At the pump, gas prices rose less than a a penny overnight to a national average of $2.047 a gallon Wednesday, and remain well below the year-ago average of $3.331 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.
After the report was released, light, sweet crude rose 15 cents to 449.30 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
