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NEW YORK — Crude inventories rose last week, though gasoline supplies dropped yet again, the government said Wednesday.
Crude inventories increased by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 349.5 million barrels, which is 18.4 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts had expected a build of 1.5 million barrels for the week ended July 31, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline inventories fell by 200,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 212.9 million barrels. That was less than with analyst expectations and 2.9 percent above year-ago levels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 31 was 0.5 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging 9.2 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 84.5 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 0.1 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to slip to 84.1 percent.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.1 million barrels to 161.5 million barrels for the week ended July 31. Analysts expected distillate stocks to add 1.1 million barrels.
Crude prices fell $1.15 to $70.27 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
