Ahead of the Bell: Oil Inventory Report

The Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, publishes petroleum inventory data for the week ended July 4 at 10:35 a.m. EDT.

Analysts expect oil stockpiles fell last week by 1.9 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. For the week ended June 27, crude-oil inventories fell by 2 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 299.8 million barrels, which were 15.3 percent below year-ago levels.

Meanwhile, gasoline inventories rose by 2.1 million barrels, or 1 percent, to 210.9 million barrels, which were 3.1 percent above year-ago levels. Analysts expect stockpiles of the motor fuel rose by 500,000 barrels last week.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended June 27 was 1.7 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging over 9.3 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 89.2 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 0.6 percentage point from the prior week. Analysts expect capacity was unchanged last week.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 1.3 million barrels to 120.7 million barrels for the week ended June 27. Analysts expect distillate stocks rose by 2.2 million barrels last week.

At the pump, gas prices remained steady overnight at a record-high national average of nearly $4.11 a gallon, and are well above the year-ago average of about $2.97 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell $5.33 to settle at $136.04 on the New York Mercantile Exchange Tuesday.