Ahead of the Bell: Oil Inventory

Wed, Mar 19 2008, 10:35 GMT
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Government data released Wednesday is forecast to show that crude-oil inventories rose last week for the second straight period.

The Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, publishes petroleum inventory data for the week ended March 14 at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Analysts expect oil stockpiles grew last week by 2.1 million barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. For the week ended March 7, crude-oil inventories rose by 6.2 million barrels, or 2 percent, to 311.6 million barrels, which were 2.8 percent below year-ago levels.

Meanwhile, gasoline inventories rose by 1.7 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 236 million barrels, which were 11.2 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expect stockpiles of the motor fuel rose by 300,000 barrels last week.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended March 7 was 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.1 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 0.9 percentage point. Analysts expect capacity rose by 0.3 percentage point last week.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 1.2 million barrels to 116.4 million barrels for the week ended March 7. Analysts expect distillate stocks fell by 1.4 million barrels last week.

At the pump, gas prices dipped less than a penny overnight to remain at a national average of $3.28 a gallon Tuesday, but remain well above the year-ago average of $2.55, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Gas prices set a record of about $3.29 a gallon on Sunday.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose $3.74 to settle at $109.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday