Crude oil stockpiles unexpectedly jumped last week

For the week ended Oct. 3 crude-oil inventories increased by 8.1 million barrels, or 2.8 percent, to 302.6 million barrels, which is 2.7 percent below year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts had expected 1 million barrel drop, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline inventories rose by 7.2 million barrels, or 4 percent, to 186.8 million barrels, which is 6.6 percent under year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 2 million barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Oct. 3 was 5.3 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging nearly 8.8 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 80.9 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 8.6 percentage points from the prior week. Analysts expected capacity to rise 6 percent to 78.3 percent.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell 500,000 barrels to 122.6 million barrels for the week ended Oct. 3. Analysts expected distillate stocks to rise by 1 million barrels.

At the pump, gas prices fell about 3 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.447 a gallon Wednesday, but remain well above the year-ago average of $2.765 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Oil prices tumbled following the report. Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell $3.06 to $87.00 barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.