Crude-oil inventories fell for the second consecutive week, while gasoline stockpiles declined by nearly 2 percent, according to government data released Wednesday.
For the week ended July 25 crude-oil inventories fell by 100,000 barrels to 295.2 million barrels, which were 13.7 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.
Analysts had expected a draw of 1.3 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.
Gasoline inventories decreased by 3.5 million barrels, or 1.6 percent, to 213.6 million barrels, which were 4.3 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 400,000 barrels.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 25 was 2.4 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.4 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 87.2 percent of total capacity on average, a decline of 2 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to fall by 0.5 percentage points.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.4 million barrels to 130.5 million barrels for the week ended July 25. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 1.8 million barrels.
At the pump, gas prices fell a penny to $3.93 a gallon overnight, off the record-high national average of $4.11 a gallon reached July 17,according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Prices still remain well above the year-ago average of about $2.88 a gallon.
In midday trading, light, sweet crude for August delivery rose 39 cents to $122.58 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
