Ahead of the Bell: Oil Inventory Report

Government data released Wednesday is expected to show that crude-oil inventories rose last week for the fourth straight period and that gasoline stockpiles fell.

The Energy Department's forecasting arm, the Energy Information Administration, publishes petroleum inventory data for the week ended May 9 at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

Analysts expect oil stockpiles grew last week by 2.5 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy research arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. For the week ended May 2, crude-oil inventories rose by 5.7 million barrels, or 1.8 percent, to 325.6 million barrels, which were 3.6 percent below year-ago levels.

Analysts expect stockpiles of the motor fuel fell by 800,000 barrels last week. The prior week, gasoline inventories rose by 800,000 barrels, or 0.4 percent, to 211.9 million barrels, which were 7.6 percent above year-ago levels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended May 2 was about 0.1 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging nearly 9.3 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 85 percent of total capacity on average, a drop of 0.4 percentage point. Analysts expect capacity rose by 0.8 percentage point last week.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 100,000 barrels to 105.7 million barrels for the week ended May 2. Analysts expect distillate stocks rose by 1.1 million barrels last week.

At the pump, gas prices rose more than a penny overnight to a record high national average of $3.73 a gallon Tuesday, and are well above the year-ago average of $3.07 a gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Diesel prices also set a record of $4.39 a gallon.

Light, sweet crude for June delivery jumped to a new record of $126.98 a barrel before retreating to settle up $1.57 at $125.80 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Also Tuesday, the Senate voted 97-1 to direct President Bush to stop adding roughly 70,000 barrels a day to the nation's strategic petroleum reserve. Some lawmakers feel the shipments are pushing oil prices higher. The administration contends the reserve is to be used only to counter a severe disruption in supply, not in reaction to prices.