U.S. crude oil inventories rise as prices end high

HOUSTON, April 11 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil inventories increased last week, and the refining sector input 83,000 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 April 6, increased by 3.3 million barrels from the previous week.

At 428.6 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the lower half of the average range for this time of the year.

Total products supplied over the past four-week period averaged over 20.7 million barrels per day, up 5 percent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline products supplied averaged 9.3 million barrels per day, down 0.6 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.1 million barrels per day, down 3.6 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied is up 4.3 percent compared with the same four-week period last year.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday. The West Texas Intermediate for May delivery rose 1.31 U.S. dollar to settle at 66.82 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent Crude for June delivery added 1.02 dollar to close at 72.06 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem