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Business Title: Oil Prices Fall As Supplies Continue To Grow NEW YORK (AP) -- Oil prices fell Wednesday after the government reported crude oil supplies rose last week, and new data showed OPEC production reached a two-year high. Supplies of oil and gasoline in the U.S. are rising, while demand for energy products remains weak. The economy is getting stronger, but businesses have been slow to increase hiring. The employment rate remains high which means fewer commuters on the road to buy gasoline. The price of oil has also been affected by signs that Saudi Arabia and other OPEC nations are raising production to keep the price from going too high and slowing the global economic recovery. According to a new report from Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Co., OPEC crude oil production last month averaged 29.57 million barrels per day. That's the highest level in two years. The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday that crude oil supplies increased last week by 1.9 million barrels to 345.1 million barrels. That was below the 2.4 million barrels rise that analysts expected, according to Platts. One of the biggest increases in crude came on the West Coast. Oil shipments from the trans-Alaska pipeline picked up after it closed temporarily last month because of a leak. That was offset by an unexpected, 900,000-barrel drop in supplies at Cushing, Okla., according to the government report. The Cushing hub is the delivery point for benchmark West Texas Intermediate traded on the Nymex. Gasoline supplies increased 4.7 million barrels to 240.9 million barrels, which was larger than analysts expected. Demand for gasoline over the past four weeks fell 0.3 percentage point to an average of 8.6 million barrels a day. Pump prices have remained high, above $3 a gallon in many parts of the country. Supplies of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, increased by 300,000 barrels to 164.4 million barrels. Energy analyst Jim Ritterbusch said traders continue to be concerned about potential supply disruptions because of tension in Egypt and other Middle East countries. There also are concerns about North Sea supplies of Brent crude oil, which has caused its price to rise higher than benchmark WTI crude. At the gas pump, the price for a gallon of regular gasoline was $3.115 a gallon Wednesday, according to AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. That's 2.7 cents more than a month ago and 47.1 cents more than a year ago. Benchmark WTI crude for March delivery fell 30 cents to $86.69 per barrel at midday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude rose 84 cents to $101.36 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. In other Nymex trading in March contracts, heating oil rose a penny at $2.7400 a gallon, gasoline gained 1 cent at $2.5076 a gallon and natural gas was unchanged at $4.040 per 1,000 cubic feet.
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