US crude oil stocks rise, heating oil declines

WASHINGTON, Oct 20 (AFP) - US commercial inventories of crude oil rose but crucial winter heating oil stocks dripped lower last week, a government survey showed Wednesday.
Crude oil inventories in the week to October 15 rose 1.2 million barrels from the previous week to 279.4 million barrels, at the lower end of average for the season, the Energy Department report said.
But distillates -- mostly diesel and heating oil -- fell for the fifth week in a row, declining by 1.9 million barrels to 119.0 million.
A breakdown showed heating oil inventories, in high demand in the northern hemisphere winter, slipped 500,000 barrels to 49.5 million. Diesel fell 900,000 barrels to 67.3 million.
Gasoline stocks dropped 700,000 barrels to 199.9 million.
A parallel survey by the private American Petroleum Institute found crude oil stocks fell 1.0 million barrels to 277.9 million, distillates declined 1.2 million barrels to 116.8 million and gasoline dropped 2.4 million barrels to 197.5 million.
The crude oil reserves data exclude the 669.4-million-barrel US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, an emergency supply stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.