US oil supplies drop by 2.8m barrels

U.S. crude oil inventories fell for the fourth consecutive week, falling by 2.8 million barrels, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. Crude oil stockpiles fell to 364.2 million barrels during the week ending Friday, but remained in the upper half of the average range on a seasonal basis. The agency said supplies of motor grade gasoline fell by 1.4 million barrels to 222.7 million barrels but are above the average range for this time of year. Supplies of distillate fuels, which include home heating oil, declined by 1.2 million barrels to 126.5 million barrels. Inventories of distillate fuels are near the lower half of the average range for this time of year. The national average price of unleaded gasoline rose during the week, climbing by 4.3 cents per gallon to reach $3.682 per gallon, putting the price of gasoline 18.8 cents above the same week of 2012.