Oil Hits Another Record, Reaching $65 a Barrel

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rude oil prices hit another record high Wednesday, touching $65 a barrel before finishing the trading day at a record closing price of $64.90 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.

The soaring prices followed a Department of Energy inventory report Wednesday that showed gasoline supplies dropped, while crude and distillate inventories gained.

Gasoline supplies dropped 2.1 million barrels last week, DOE said in its weekly inventory report, which was more than analysts had expected, Bloomberg reported.

Distillate supplies, which include diesel, rose 2.6 million barrels, though distillate demand, at 4.4%, continued to grow faster than gasoline demand, which rose 1.4%, DOE said.

Crude oil supplies also rose, by 2.8 million barrels, DOE reported. That exceeded analysts’ forecasts of a 1 million barrel drop, Bloomberg said.

U.S. refineries operated at 95% capacity last week, down 0.8% from the previous week, Bloomberg said.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures have surged to repeated records in the past two weeks on the Nymex.

The latest intraday high record had been Tuesday, at $64.27 a barrel, while the record closing price was set Monday, at $63.94, Bloomberg reported.

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