Oil futures slightly trim losses after EIA shows bigger-than-expected drop in gasoline inventories

Oil futures trimmed losses Wednesday morning after weekly data from the Energy Information Administration showed a larger-than-expected drop in gasoline inventories, while crude inventories saw another big rise. West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery were down $2.08, or 2.3%, at $88.42 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after trading at a session low of $87.66. September gasoline erased a loss to rise 1.1% to $2.991 a gallon. The EIA said U.S. crude inventories jumped 5 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 5, while gasoline supplies fell 5 million barrels and distillate supplies rose 2.2 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by S&P Global Commodity Insights had forecast, on average, a 600,000 barrel rise in crude inventories, a 1.2 million barrel drop for gasoline and a 900,000 barrel fall for distillates. The EIA data also showed that refinery utilization surged to 94.3% versus expectations for 91.8%.

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