U.S. crude inventories increase last week

HOUSTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil inventories increased last week ending Feb. 23, and refineries operated at 87.8 percent of their operable capacity, or 49,000 barrels per day more than the previous week's average, said the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) Wednesday.

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 Feb. 23 increased by 3 million barrels from the previous week.

At 423.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the lower half of the average range for this time of year.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.4 million barrels per day, up 2.7 percent from the same period of last year.

Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline products supplied averaged 9 million barrels per day, up 3.8 percent compared with the same period of last year. Enditem