Distillate Inventories Rise in Latest Week

eating oil futures prices fell Wednesday following a Department of Energy report that showed distillate inventories rose above expectations last week, Bloomberg reported.

Distillate inventories jumped 3.3 million barrels, well above 1 million barrel increase forecast by economists, Bloomberg said.

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

DOE said in its weekly inventory report that crude oil supplies fell by 4.2 million barrels, a bigger drop than a 500,000 decline predicted by analysts, Bloomberg said.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures prices dropped 10 cents to $56.40 in intraday Nymex trading, and prices have fallen 21% since reaching a record $70.85 a barrel following Hurricane Katrina in late August.

Gasoline inventories slipped by 500,000 barrels, not as great of a drop as the 750,000 predicted by economists, the Associated Press reported.