U.S. Oil Inventories Fell Last Week

For the week ending Nov. 16, crude oil inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels, or 0.9 percent, to 314.7 million barrels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected oil stockpiles, which are still 6.9 percent below year-ago levels, to rise by 700,000 barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

Stockpiles of gasoline inched upward by 200,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 195.2 million barrels, which is 4.5 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected inventories of the motor fuel to rise by 700,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ending Nov. 16 was 0.3 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging about 9.3 million barrels a day.

At the pump, gas prices dipped slightly overnight but remained at $3.09 a for regular-grade gasoline, still well above the year-ago average of $2.23 per gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 10 cents to $97.93 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday morning, after earlier rising as high as $99.29 a barrel in electronic trading to break the previous intraday record of $98.62 set last week.