Oil futures dropped Wednesday after the government reported unexpectedly large jumps in stockpiles of crude oil and gasoline and a surprise increase in stocks of heating oil. Coming amid anxiety about the U.S. economy's health, and concerns that demand for oil and gasoline is falling, the inventory report reinforced a growing view that oil and petroleum product supplies are adequate. In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said crude oil inventories jumped by 7 million barrels last week, nearly triple the 2.6 million barrel increase that analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had expected. Gasoline stocks grew by 3.6 million barrels last week, double the 1.8 million barrel estimate. And inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 100,000 barrels, countering analyst expectations that supplies would fall by 1.8 million barrels. «The major figures were all bearish,» said Tim Evans, an analyst at Citigroup Inc. in a research note. Light, sweet crude for March delivery fell $1.27 to settle at $87.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after earlier dropping as low as $86.66, its lowest price in two weeks.
