Oil supplies climb by 2.9 million barrels

U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2.9 million barrels last week, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said. The agency said inventories climbed to 369.2 million barrels. Supplies of crude oil remain above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, the agency said in the report issued Thursday. After dropping by 3.2 million in the previous week, supplies of distillate fuels, which include home heating oil, fell by 2.2 million barrels to 118.7 million barrels, with inventories holding below the lower limit of the average range. Stockpiles of gasoline rose by 1.7 million barrels to 197.1 million barrels this week, remaining near the lower half of the average range. The national average price of gasoline dropped by 3.1 cents to $3.819 per gallon. The current average price is 34.3 cents more than the price in same week of 2011, the agency said.