Crude oil stockpiles fall by 1 million barrels

NEW YORK — Crude inventories fell last week, while gasoline supplies grew, the government said Wednesday.

Crude inventories fell by 1 million barrels, or 0.3 percent, to 337.4 million barrels, which is 10.9 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a build of 1.9 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 2, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels, or 1.4 percent, to 214.4 million barrels. That was in line with analysts’ expectations and 12.7 percent above year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Oct. 2 was 6.2 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85 percent of total capacity on average, a rise of 0.4 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to slip to 84.5 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 700,000 barrels from the previous week to 171.8 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to grow by 400,000 barrels.

Crude prices fell 32 cents to $70.56 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.