US oil inventories rose surprisingly over the past week, and are now about 2% lower than the five-year average for this time of year, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration released today, the twenty-seventh of March, oil inventories increased by 3.2 million barrels to 448.2 million barrels last week, analysts ' forecasts had indicated that inventories would decline by 0.7 million barrels. Gasoline inventories also increased by 1.3 million barrels and on the other hand, distillates decreased by 1.2 million barrels on a weekly basis and crude oil imports averaged 6.7 million barrels per day, rising by 424 thousand barrels per day.
