Us Crude Oil Inventories Slip, Government Survey Shows

WASHINGTON, Aug 4 (AFP) - US commercial crude oil inventories slipped last week but stocks of gasoline bubbled higher, a government survey showed Wednesday.
Crude oil stocks in the week ending July 30 dropped 1.9 million barrels to 298.6 million, on the low side of average for this time of year, the Energy Department said.
Gasoline inventories rose 2.4 million barrels to 210.1 million barrels, at the upper end of the average range.
Distillate inventories -- diesel and heating oil -- rose 2.1 million barrels to 121.2 million barrels. Among distillates, diesel rose 1.3 million barrels and heating oil was up 500,000 barrels.
A parallel survey by the American Petroleum Institute found crude oil stocks rose 792,000 barrels to 299.5 million, gasoline surged 3.5 million barrels to 212.8 million and distillates fell 60,000 barrels to 118.4 million.
The crude oil reserves data exclude the 665-million-barrel US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.