Oil shakes off inventory report
Crude futures retreat after initial surge on report showing bigger gasoline drawdown than expected.
August 17, 2005: 10:48 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Oil prices rallied briefly Wednesday after a government report said that crude and distillate inventories rose less than expected while gasoline stocks dropped far further than expectations.
But after an initial surge as high as $66.60 a barrel, 50 cents shy of the intraday recore, U.S. light sweet crude for September delivery pulled back to $65.80 by 10:44 a.m. ET, just about where it was when the Energy Information Administration released its report at 10:30 a.m.
The contract settled Tuesday at $66.08.
Crude oil inventories climbed 300,000 barrels from the previous week, versus forecasts of a 1.25 million barrel draw, according to Briefing.com. At 321.1 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are well above the upper end of the average range for this time of year.
Total motor gasoline inventories dropped by 5 million barrels last week, putting them near the bottom end of the average range. The figure sent gasoline futures to a new intraday active-contract record at $2.029 a gallon before they eased to $1.995, up 1.14 cents from Tuesday's settlement.
Inventories for distillates, used for heating and jet fuel, increased by 1.2 million barrels last week, and are above the upper end of the average range for this time of year.