Oil futures Climb over $3 after Gas Inventories Slumped
Oil futures climbed more than $3 on Wednesday after a report showed gasoline inventories had a steep decline.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said gasoline stockpiles dropped 4.53 million barrels to 224.7 million barrels last week, surpassing largely the 2.3 to 2.6 million barrels decline experts forecasted.
The Energy Department added on its report that demand for gas rose nearly 1 percent compared to the same period in 2007.
Crude futures for May delivery rose $3.86 or 3.82 percent to $104.84 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange by 3:22 p.m.
Brent crude rose $3.56 or 3.55 percent to $103.84 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange.
Crude supplies rose 7.32 million barrels to 319.2 million barrels last week larger than expected.
Refineries operated at 82.4 percent of capacity last week, 0.2 percent more than previous week, the report showed.
Also the dollar dropped against the euro for the first time in 3 days today.
Inventories of distillate fuels, including heating oil, diesel and jet fuel, fell 1.6 million barrels to 109.7 million barrels the previous week.
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