Oil Dips Following Inventory Report

Oil dipped slightly Wednesday following a Department of Energy report that showed inventories of gasoline and distillates rose last week, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures fell to $70.82 following the report, which showed that while crude inventories declined by about 1 million barrels last week, gas stockpiles rose by 2.9 million barrels.

Distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, gained 700,000 barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly report.

Oil closed at $70.88 Tuesday but had risen to more than $71 a barrel in early trading Wednesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.