U.S. crude supplies rise, oil futures rise

The Department of Energy said U.S. crude oil inventories increased by 2.5 million barrels on the week ending August 7, to 352 million barrels more than the 700,000 barrels forecasted by analysts, according to Reuters. Gasoline inventories declined by 1 million barrels last week and distillate fuel inventories increased by 0.8 million barrels. Oil prices surged above $70 per barrel after the report.

U.S. lists top states acting to reduce oil dependence

The Natural Resources Defense Council released a report ranking the states in the United States which have higher dependence on oil and those which take efforts to reduce oil dependence. California was listed as the most active to reduce dependence on oil while West Virginia did the least amount of effort to diminish it, according to the report.

IEA rises oil demand forecast

The International Energy Agency increased its forecast of oil demand in a report released Wednesday expecting 2009 global oil consumption to average 83.94 million barrels a day, citing better economic activity in Asia including growth in China.

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