Reply #4: Oil falls below $80 as US inventories jump

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE – Oil prices slid below $80 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after China moved to curb bank lending and a report showed an unexpected jump in U.S. inventories of distillates and gasoline. ....

But data released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute showed distillate inventories increased 3.6 million barrels last week, while analysts had expected a drop of 1.7 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies jumped 6.8 million barrels and crude stocks rose 1.2 million, the API said. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration plans to announce its inventory report later Wednesday. ....

In other Nymex trading in February contracts, heating oil fell 2.94 cents to $2.10 a gallon and gasoline dropped 3.58 cents to $2.06 a gallon. Natural gas futures skidded 6.4 cents to $5.53.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oil_prices