AlQa'dah 17, 1433, Oct 3, 2012, SPA -- U.S. crude oil supplies declined last week, the government said Wednesday. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said that crude supplies fell by 500,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 364.7 million barrels, which was 8.4 percent above levels one year ago. According to McGraw-Hill's Platts, analysts had expected an increase of 1.5 million barrels for the week ended September 28. Gasoline supplies increased by 100,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 195.9 million barrels, which was 8.3 percent lower than year-ago levels, the administration reported. Platts said analysts expected gasoline supplies to be unchanged. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended September 28 was 2.5 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging 8.7 million barrels a day. According to the department, U.S. refineries ran at 88.2 percent of total capacity on average, up from 0.8 percentage points from the previous week, while analysts were expecting capacity to remain unchanged. Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 3.7 million barrels to 124.1 million barrels, the government said. Analysts surveyed by Platts expected distillate stocks to fall by 400,000 barrels.
