NEW YORK -- Crude-oil prices in New York gave up more than a dollar Wednesday after government data showed U.S. commercial crude-oil stocks rose last week to their highest level in six years.
Near-record imports of crude pushed inventories up for the 13th time in 14 weeks, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistics branch of the U.S. Department of Energy. A greater-than-expected build in gasoline inventories put further pressure on prices, with boosts in both crude and gasoline topping analysts' expectations.
June light, sweet crude futures fell as much as $1.47 to $47.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the release of the data. On London's International Petroleum Exchange, July Brent blend futures fell as much as 94 cents to $48.40 a barrel.
"For the near-term, this is obviously very bearish," said Fadel Gheit, senior vice president of oil and gas research for Oppenheimer and Co., a full-service New York brokerage firm. "But you're only building inventory out of necessity, because you're anticipating a huge increase in demand -- so I take this as a bullish sign, not necessarily a bearish sign."
Mr. Gheit pointed to expectations for a record number of Memorial Day travelers in late May and an active hurricane season later this year as good reason to believe the energy industry may build up inventories.
"When I connect these things, I say, 'Wait a minute, no wonder inventory is building, people don't want to get caught short,'" he said.
The EIA reported rising demand for both crude and gasoline last week. The leap in gasoline demand was the most striking, climbing to 9.3 million barrels a day to the third highest weekly average ever reported for May.
Refinery utilization rose sharply last week to 94% of capacity, up 2.2 percentage points.
Crude oil imports surged to 10.9 million barrels a day in the week ended May 13, the fourth highest weekly average ever, the EIA said.
Nymex gasoline futures for June fell as much as 2.22 cents to $1.4130 a gallon after the data.
Heating oil futures for the same month posted shallower losses, falling as much as 1.39 cents to $1.3600 a gallon on an unexpected drop in distillate stocks.
On the IPE, gasoil futures for June rose as much as $9.50 to $439.75 a metric ton.
In other commodity markets:
Metals: Gold for July delivery added 80 cents to trade at $420.60 an ounce in early dealings. July silver built on Tuesday's rally, gaining another eight cents to $7.125 an ounce. Getting a lift from the Chinese output data, July copper tacked on 1.55 cents to stand at $1.364 a pound. June palladium moved up 15 cents to $190.25 an ounce, but platinum failed to follow suit as the July contract fell back to $859 an ounce, down $3.20.
--Mike Maynard, MarketWatch