U.S. Crude Oil Inventories Rising

U.S. crude oil inventories rose last week by 2.8 million barrels as imports of the commodity rose sharply.

For the week ending Aug. 5 there were 320.8 million barrels in storage, well above the upper end of the average range for this time of year, the Energy Department reported Wednesday.

Crude oil imports last week rose 101,000 barrels per day from the previous week’s level, reaching the second highest weekly average ever. In the last four weeks, crude oil imports have risen 374,000 barrels per day from the comparable four weeks last year.

Petroleum product inventories were mixed, with gasoline down and heating oil up.

Total motor gasoline inventories fell by 2.1 million barrels last week, putting them in the lower half of the average range.

Distillate fuel inventories, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, increased by 2.6 million barrels last week, just above the upper end of the average range for this time of year.

Most of the distillate fuel increase came from greater volumes of heating oil.