Crude Oil Prices Drop As Supplies of Distillates Increase

Crude oil prices drop as supplies of distillates increase

NEW YORK, July 13 (Xinhua) — Crude oil futures fell Wednesday after a US government report showed a more-than-expected increase in stockpiles of distillates.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures dropped 61 cents to end at 60.01 dollars a barrel, while on London’s International Petroleum Exchange, the August Brent crude- oil futures contract fell 55 cents to finish at 58.27 dollars per barrel.

The Energy Department reported that US supplies of distillates rose 3.19 million barrels last week, more than a 2 million-barrel increase analysts and traders had expected. The category of ” distillates” included heating oil and diesel fuel. However, the government report showed that inventories of crude oil fell 3.9 million barrels to 320.9 million, and refinery operations fell 1.9 percent to 96.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency lowered its outlook for growth in oil demand in the United States in the fourth quarter, signaling that use of oil products might be growing less than expected this year.