US crude oil supplies grow by 2.5 million barrels

NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's crude oil supplies increased last week, the government said Wednesday.

Crude supplies rose by 2.5 million barrels, or 0.6 percent, to 393.8 million barrels, which is 2.4 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected crude supplies to be unchanged for the week ended June 7, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies grew by 2.7 million barrels, or 1.3 percent, to 221.5 million barrels. That's 9.8 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected gasoline supplies to rise by 1 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended June 7 was 0.4 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 8.8 million barrels a day.

U.S. refineries ran at 87.5 percent of total capacity on average, down 0.9 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to fall to 88.1 percent.

Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, shrank by 1.2 million barrels to 122.1 million barrels. Analysts expected distillate stocks to grow by 1.4 million barrels.

Benchmark crude futures rose by 53 cents to $95.91 a barrel in New York.