Crude oil stocks rose by only 700,000 bbl to 351.3 million bbl, and the trading community focused on a small draw of 400,000 bbl in Cushing, Okla., stocks. It's still much too early to believe that inventories won't beat the decade-long high established in June 2007. Gasoline traders got excited by stats that showed a stock decline of 3.5 million bbl nationally. They also cited the four week running average quote for motor fuel which is 1.7% above last year. Some further digging, however, raises questions. DOE's mention of a 1.7% year-on-year increase in gasoline demand uses a revised figure for 2008 demand as the base. Eventually, DOE revised January demand lower by 2.94% a year ago, and dropped the official record for February 2008 demand by 2.14%. Similar revisions may be in the cards this year.
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