Oil, Gasoline, Distillate Stockpiles Rose Last Week, API Reports

Crude oil inventories increased 9.57 million barrels last week, the American Petroleum Institute said.

Distillate fuel inventories gained 554,000 barrels, the API’s weekly report showed. Gasoline stockpiles rose 1.86 million.

Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, slipped 292,000 barrels.

The Energy Department is scheduled to release its inventory report at 11 a.m. tomorrow in Washington, a day later than usual because of the Christmas holiday.

The government report may show stockpiles of crude oil fell 2.5 million barrels last week, according to the median of 10 responses in a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline inventories probably dropped 500,000 barrels, the survey showed. Distillates were expected to decrease 650,000.

API collects stockpile information on a voluntary basis from operators of refineries, bulk terminals and pipelines. The government requires that reports be filed with the Energy Department for its weekly survey.

Crude oil for February delivery dropped $1.80, or 1.8 percent, to $99.54 at 4:31 p.m. in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract, which settled at $99.36, traded at $99.70 before the report was released at 4:30 p.m.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Shenk in New York at mshenk1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Bill Banker at bbanker@bloomberg.net