Crude oil supplies rise 2.3 million barrels

Oops, looks like expectations don’t matter as much as outcomes. Enjoy the sell off, suckers…

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s crude oil and gasoline supplies grew last week, according to government data released Wednesday.

Crude supplies increased by 2.3 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 354 million barrels, which is 1.9 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected a drop of 2.3 million barrels for the week ended July 22, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies rose by 1 million barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 213.5 million barrels. That was more than analysts expected and 3.9 percent below year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 22 was 3.3 percent lower than a year ago, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 88.3 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 2 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to rise to 90.5 percent.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 3.4 million barrels to 151.8 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to increase by 1.8 million barrels.

Crude prices fell $2.10, or 2.1 percent, to $97.49 per barrel in morning trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.