U.S. oil closes near $82 on supplies data

New York -- U.S. oil prices closed near $82 a barrel Wednesday after a government report said U.S. crude inventories fell nearly double what many analysts expected.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery was up 42 cents, or 0.52 percent, to close at $81.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed as high as $82.50 earlier in the day.

The U.S. Energy Department said crude inventories fell 3.8 million barrels last week. Many analysts had expected the report to show supplies dropped about 2 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies rose by 400,000 barrels, the department said. Many analysts had predicted a 1 million-barrel decline.

Refinery utilization fell 0.9 point to 89.6 percent of capacity. Analysts had expected 0.5 point drop.

Distillate inventories, including heating oil and diesel fuel, rose 1.5 million barrels, 400,000 barrels above many analysts' forecast.

Gasoline demand averaged nearly 9.5 million barrels a day over the past four weeks, 0.5 percent more than last year's same period.

October natural gas fell 39 cents, or 5.91 percent, to $6.18 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Heating oil added 0.3 cents, or 0.13 percent, to $2.2453 a gallon.

Reformulated-gasoline blendstock for oxygen blending added 3.31 cents, or 1.61 percent, to $2.0934 a gallon.

AAA said the average U.S. retail regular unleaded gasoline price was $2.79 a gallon, up 0.3 cents from Tuesday's $2.787 a gallon.

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Copyright 2007 by United Press International.