OIL prices slid yesterday after the government said stockpiles of oil and gasoline grew last week, even though a major pipeline serving Midwest refineries was shut because of a leak.

Benchmark crude for November delivery lost 26 cents to settle at US$74.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The gains in crude and gasoline supplies surprised many traders and analysts who expected a drop because of the closed Enbridge Energy Partners pipeline that carried Canadian crude to refineries in Wisconsin and Indiana. The pipeline restarted Friday, eight days after it was closed because of a leak.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said commercial crude inventories increased by 1 million barrels to 358.3 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 17. Analysts expected a drop of 1.5 million barrels, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill. Platts senior oil analyst Linda Rafield said the increase came from more crude imports. She also pointed out that crude inventories are building as refineries slow down for seasonal maintenance and use less petroleum.

Gasoline supplies rose by 1.6 million barrels to 226.1 million barrels. Gasoline demand over the four weeks ended Sept. 17 averaged 9.1 million barrels a day, down 0.1 percent from the same period of 2009. Demand fell from the previous week by 172,000 barrels a day to 8.8 million barrels a day. That's a six-month low that Rafield says is "a sign that the consumer is curtailing discretionary spending."

EIA said supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 300,000 barrels to 174.9 million barrels, which was 2.4 percent more than a year ago.

"It looks like October and November are going to be warmer than normal which is going to delay the start of the season where people use heating oil to heat their homes," Tradition Energy analyst Addison Armstrong said.

In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil fell 1.29 cents to settle at US$2.1070 a gallon and gasoline lost 1.82 cents to settle at US$1.9014 a gallon. Natural gas rose 4.7 cents to settle at US$3.966 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell 47 cents to settle at US$77.95 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• barrel [´bærəl] n.(琵琶)桶；圆筒 (初中英语单词)
• energy [´enədʒi] n.活力，精力；能力 (初中英语单词)
• canadian [kə´neidiən] a.加拿大的n.加拿大人 (初中英语单词)
• administration [əd,minis´treiʃən] n.管理(事务等)；经营 (初中英语单词)
• commercial [kə´mə:ʃəl] a.商业的 n.广告节目 (初中英语单词)
• pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
• previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
• normal [´nɔ:məl] a.正规的 n.正常状态 (初中英语单词)
• tradition [trə´diʃən] n.传统；惯例；传说 (初中英语单词)
• gasoline [´gæsəli:n] n.汽油 (高中英语单词)
• delivery [di´livəri] n.送交；分娩；交货 (高中英语单词)
• indiana [,indi´ænə] n.印第安纳(州) (高中英语单词)
• ending [´endiŋ] n.结尾，结局 (高中英语单词)
• senior [´si:niə] a.年长的 n.前辈 (高中英语单词)
• maintenance [´meintinəns] n.保持；主张；保养 (高中英语单词)
• consumer [kən´sju:mə] n.消费者；用户 (高中英语单词)
• gallon [´gælən] n.加伦 (高中英语单词)
• petroleum [pi´trəuliəm] n.石油 (英语四级单词)