(RTTNews) - While the price of oil has pulled back well off its high for the session on Wednesday, it currently remains positive following the release of the Energy Information Administration’s report on oil inventories in the week ended August 15th.

After reaching an intraday high of $117.03 a barrel earlier in the session, crude for September delivery is currently up $0.47 at $115 a barrel. With the increase, the price of oil is moving further off the three-month closing low it set on Monday.

The continued increase by the price of oil comes as the EIA report showed a substantial decrease in gasoline inventories, although the pullback of the highs comes as it also showed a much bigger than expected increase in crude oil inventories.

The report showed that crude oil inventories increased by 9.4 million barrels in the latest week following a decrease of about 300,000 barrels in the previous week. Analysts had been expecting a much more modest increase of about 1 million barrels.

With the increase, crude oil inventories rose to 305.9 million barrels and are now in the middle of the average range for this time of year.

However, the EIA, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, also said that gasoline inventories fell by 6.2 million barrels and are below the lower boundary of the average range. The decrease in gas inventories exceeded analyst estimates of a decrease of about 3 million barrels.

At the same time, the report showed that inventories of distillate fuels, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by about 500,000 barrels compared to analyst estimates of an increase of about 850,000 barrels.

The EIA added that refineries operated at 85.7 percent of their operable capacity last week, which represents a 0.2 percentage point decrease from the previous week. The decrease came as a surprise to analysts, who had expected capacity to increase by 0.4 percentage points.

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Posted in Categories: Economy, Releases.

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