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U.S. crude oil supplies continue to decline

https://www.chemnet.com   Nov 08,2007 Xinhua
WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell last week, the third consecutive weekly decline, while gasoline supplies also decreased, the Energy Department reported Wednesday in its weekly survey.

In the week ended Nov. 2, the nation's commercial crude oil inventories dropped by 800,000 barrels to 311.9 million. But the drop was half the 1.6 million barrel decline analysts were expecting.

Gasoline stockpiles also fell 800,000 barrels last week to 194.3 million. Analysts, however, had been forecasting gasoline supplies to grow by 200,000 barrels.

Meanwhile, supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 100,000 barrels last week to 135.4 million, defying a decline of 500,000 barrels expected by analysts.

The report also showed that U.S. refinery utilization remained flat last week at 86.2 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected an increase of 0.8 percentage point.

U.S. crude imports increased by an average of 275,000 barrels a day last week to 9.7 million, while gasoline imports rose 107,000 barrels to an average of 1.1 million barrels a day.

Last week, gasoline demand was at 9.367 million barrels a day, about 12,000 barrels higher than the previous week.

The figures for commercial crude oil inventories do not include the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which currently holds crude oil of about 6.93 million barrels.
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