Oil supplies drop in week

U.S. crude oil inventories fell for the fourth week out of the past five in the week ending Friday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. Inventories have dropped by 20.8 million barrels in the five-week stretch after rising by 1.9 million barrels in the previous week. Crude oil supplies fell to 336.3 million barrels with supplies remaining in the upper limit for the average range for this time of year, the EIA said. Supplies of distillate fuels fell by 800,000 barrels to 156.9 million barrels, while gasoline inventories dropped by 1.2 million barrels to 213.7 million barrels. Inventories of finished gasoline were rose, while blending component supplies declined, the agency said. The EIA said the national average price of regular gasoline fell in the week by 7.6 cents to $3.433 per gallon on Oct. 3, which put the price of gasoline 74.9 cents above the price during the same week of 2010.