the energy information administration on wednesday reported that us crude inventories climbed last week defying some expectations for a sizable decline while gasoline and distillate supplies posted declines the government agency reported that crude inventories edged up by 11 million barrels for the week ended march 17 on average analysts forecast a decline of 55 million barrels according to a survey by sp global commodity insights the eia report showed weekly inventory declines of 64 million barrels for gasoline and 33 million barrels for distillates the analyst survey had forecast supply decreases of 2 million barrels for gasoline and 13 million barrels for distillates crude stocks at the cushing okla nymex delivery hub fell by 11 million barrels for the week the eia said may west texas intermediate crude clk23 was down 3 cents or less than 01 at 6964 a barrel on the new york mercantile exchange it was at 6930 before the supply data