US Inventories Increased

US inventories of commercial crude oil and distillate fuel increased over the past week, while gasoline stockpiles fell sharply, the Energy Department reported Wednesday in its weekly petroleum supply survey.

In the week ending Aug. 19, commercial crude oil reserve rose by 1.8 million barrels to 322.9 million, or 13 percent above year ago level. The supply of distillate fuel, including diesel and heating oil, were up 1.4 million barrels to 132.5 million, or 4 percent above year ago level.

Inventories of gasoline, however, dropped by 3.2 million barrels last week to 194.9 million, or 7 percent below year ago level.

The report on gasoline supplies pushed gasoline futures on New York Mercantile Exchange up 6.2 cents to 1.92 dollars per gallon. Heating oil futures advanced 4.06 cents to 1.86 dollars per gallon.

The figures for commercial crude oil inventories do not includethe US Strategic Petroleum Reserve(SPR), which currently holds nearly 700 million barrels of crude oil.