Oil adds to gain after supply report shows decline (by Claudia Assis)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures added to gains Thursday after a weekly government supply report showed a surprise inventory decrease. Oil for February delivery (cl2g) added 88 cents, or 0.9%, to $101.47 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange; it had added 71 cents before the report. The Energy Information Administration reported a decline of 3.4 million barrels i n crude supplies in the week ended Jan. 13. Analysts polled by Platts had expected an increase of 2.6 million barrels. The EIA also reported gasoline supplies up 3.7 million barrels, and inventories of distillates up 400,000 barrels. The Platts analysts had expected gasoline to rise by 3 million barrels and distillates to rise by 1.4 million barrels.