Crude Oil Prices Level Off After Positive Inventory Report

fter rising overnight, crude oil prices leveled off Wednesday after the Department of Energy reported that inventories of crude oil, gasoline and distillate fuel all rose by 2.7 million barrels last week, Bloomberg reported.

eating oil futures rose less than 1 cent to $1.765 a gallon, well below the $2.21 record set on Sept. 1 in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bloomberg reported.

Heating oil and diesel are both distillate fuel and their prices often parallel each another in the winter.

Oil is still 15% below its record $70.85 set on Aug. 30, the day after Katrina made landfall.

OPEC supplier nations are pumping nearly as much oil as it can after offering to sell every barrel it can produce through the end of the year, Bloomberg said.