Oil Prices Drop on Gasoline Inventory Build

At 9:25 am EDT, the price of crude had fallen by 0.5 percent to $68.87 a barrel and the price of heating oil had given up 0.7 percent.

HEAT USA Price Report
Today’s average retail heating oil price per gallon: UP $0.04
Morning projection (for Thursday’s average retail price per gallon): DOWN $0.03

Data on US inventories of petroleum products released yesterday evening drove oil prices down this morning.  The weekly inventory report released Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute showed a surprisingly large increase in gasoline stocks—3.7 million barrels—that was over 2 million barrels more than was predicted in a Reuters survey earlier this week.  The US Energy Information Administration’s inventory report, largely considered more complete and more reliable than the API report, is expected to confirm yesterday’s API data.  The US dollar also declined sharply, contributing to lower oil prices.

HEAT USA price experts confirmed yesterday’s prediction of higher retail heating oil prices today, and predicted that today’s falling market prices would translate to a moderate decrease in retail prices on Thursday.