April 29 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil and gasoline rose after a government report showed an unexpected drop in U.S. inventories of the motor fuel as refiners reduced operating rates.
Gasoline supplies declined 4.7 million barrels to 212.6 million last week, the biggest reduction since September, the Energy Department said. Stockpiles were forecast to climb by 200,000 barrels, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Prices also increased after stocks rallied and the dollar fell.
“Nobody was looking for a gasoline decline of that size,” said Sean Brodrick, natural resource analyst with Weiss Research in Jupiter, Florida. “This shows that refineries are keeping processing rates too low because there’s obviously some demand out there for gasoline.”
Crude oil for June delivery rose $1.05, or 2.1 percent, to settle at $50.97 a barrel at 2:43 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices are up 14 percent this year.
Gasoline futures for May delivery climbed 5.07 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $1.4484 a gallon in New York, the highest settlement since April 17.
Refineries operated at 82.7 percent of capacity, down 0.8 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts forecast that operating rates would climb 0.2 percentage point.
Inventories of crude oil rose 4.05 million barrels to 374.7 million in the week ended April 24, the report showed. The gain left supplies the highest since September 1990 and 15 percent greater than the five-year average for the period. Stockpiles were forecast to increase by 1.8 million barrels, according to the median response of 14 analysts surveyed. more...
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