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

HOUSTON, April 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil inventories decreased last week ending on April 13, and the refining sector fell 70,000 barrels per day less than the previous week's average, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Wednesday.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories, excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, of the week ending April 13, decreased by 1.1 million barrels from the previous week.

At 427.6 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 20.8 million barrels per day, up by 5.7 percent from the same period last year.

Over the past four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged 9.4 million barrels per day, up by 0.7 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged 4.2 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, down by 2.0 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied is up 5.3 percent compared to the same four-week period last year.

Oil prices settled higher on Wednesday. The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for May delivery increased 1.95 U.S. dollars to settle at 68.47 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude for June delivery added 1.9 dollars to close at 73.48 dollars a barrel on the London ICE Futures Exchange. Enditem