Crude-oil stockpiles fell last week, gasoline rose

WASHINGTON - Crude-oil inventories fell last week but gasoline stockpiles rose more than expected, according to government data released Wednesday. For the week ended July 18 crude-oil inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels to 295.3 million barrels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. Analysts had expected a draw of 1.9 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. Gasoline inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels to 217.1 million barrels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by only 500,000 barrels. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended July 18 was 2.4 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging more than 9.3 million barrels a day. At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 87.1 percent of total capacity... [read full story]