U.S. inventories fall further, gas price up: report

HOUSTON, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil inventories decreased while the national average retail regular gasoline price increased, according to a report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Thursday.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by the EIA, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) of the week ending Dec. 29, 2017 decreased by 7.4 million barrels from the previous week.

At 424.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the middle of the average range for this time of year.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.6 million barrels per day, up by 5.0 percent from the same period last year.

Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged about 9.2 million barrels per day, up by 2.1 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged about 4.1 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up by 5.8 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied is up 14.7 percent compared to the same four-week period last year.

The national average retail regular gasoline price increased to 2.472 U.S. dollars per gallon on Dec. 25, 0.022 dollar above last week's price and 0.163 dollar more than a year ago. The national average retail diesel fuel price increased to 2.903 dollars per gallon, 0.002 dollar per gallon over last week and 0.363 dollar above a year ago.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price overpassed 62 U.S. dollars per barrel following the EIA data release. Enditem