Crude Oil Falls for Third Day; Distillate Inventories Gain

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rude oil prices fell for a third straight day following a Department of Energy report Wednesday showing that distillate fuel inventories, which include diesel, rose last week.

Light sweet crude oil fell $1.22 to close at $52.54 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

DOE’s weekly inventory report showed that distillate inventories jumped 1.3 million barrels last week, to 107.7 million barrels.

That drop offset a drop in crude oil inventories of 3.1 million barrels, Bloomberg said. Gasoline supplies also fell, by 31,000 barrels, well below forecasts of a 1.1 million barrel gain.

Heating-oil futures fell on the Nymex by 5.08 cents a gallon, Bloomberg reported, though prices were 61% higher than the same time last year. Heating-oil price fluctuations often parallel diesel, as they are both distillate fuels.