Funny thing with these barrel prices is it's totally trader driven. Supplies keep coming in higher so there really is no reason for $100 barrel prices except for speculation. Of course that would still be Bush's fault.
Oil, Gasoline Inventories Rose Last Week
Wednesday February 27, 10:43 am ET
Government Report Says Crude Supplies Increased for Seventh Straight Week
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Crude-oil inventories rose last week for the seventh straight week, according to government data published Wednesday.
For the week ended Feb. 22, crude supplies increased by 3.2 million barrels, or 1 percent, to 308.5 million barrels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. The stockpiles were 3.4 percent below year-ago levels, and above the analysts' consensus for a gain of 2.4 million barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.
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Gasoline inventories also surprised analysts with an increase of 2.3 million barrels, or 1 percent, to 232.6 million barrels. That is 6.6 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles to rise by only 400,000 barrels last week.
Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Feb. 22 was 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging about 9 million barrels a day.
At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 84.7 percent of total capacity on average, an increase of 1.2 percentage points. Analysts expected a gain of only 0.1 percentage point.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which includes diesel and heating oil, fell by 2.5 million barrels to 120 million barrels for the week ended Feb. 22. Analysts expected distillate stocks to drop by 1.8 million barrels.
At the pump, gas prices rose by a penny overnight to a nati |
