U.S. gasoline supply sinks, crude up: EIA

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Gasoline inventories in the United States plunged last week as demand rose while crude oil stocks showed a smaller-than-expected increase, government data on Wednesday showed.

“The big draw is in gasoline … Demand is coming back,” said Tom Bentz, senior commodity analyst at BNP Paribas Commodity Futures in New York.

Gasoline supplies fell 3.4 million barrels to 215.3 million barrels, dwarfing an expected 100,000-barrel decline, the Energy Information Administration said in its report for the February 20 week.

Refinery output of motor fuel was up by 172,000 barrels per day at 8.94 million bpd, EIA said. Total U.S. gasoline demand over the past 4 weeks was 8.99 million bpd, up 1.7 percent from a year ago.

“That happened as gasoline prices at the pump dipped and you might say that despite the gloomy data on consumer confidence, people began filling their tanks again,” said Phil Flynn, analyst at Alaron Trading in Chicago.

Reuters