The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that crude stocks rose by 4.3 million barrels, or 1.5 percent, to 294.5 million barrels for the week ending Sept. 26. At the same time, gasoline inventories rose by 900,000 barrels, or 0.5 percent, to 179.6 million barrels. ...supply increases show that Gulf Coast energy infrastructure is steadily resuming operations after shutdowns caused by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav -- but also that U.S. consumers and businesses aren't in a position to resume their old fuel-guzzling habits.

A slump in energy demand has accelerated in Asia. In India, domestic oil product sales totaled 2.41 million barrels per day in August, the lowest level this year, according to Barclays Capital research. In the same month, Japan's oil demand fell by 8.4 percent.

U.S. energy demand also continues to wane, according to the weekly EIA report. Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ended Sept. 26 was 4.5 percent lower than a year earlier, averaging more nearly 8.9 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 72.3 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 5.6 percentage point from the prior week, according to the EIA. Analysts expected capacity to rise in a range of 5 percent to 8 percent to 71.7 percent to 74.7 percent.

At the pump, a gallon of regular fell 1.4 cents overnight to a new national average of $3.619, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Prices Information Service and Wright Express. (crude oil fell below $100/barrel today due to decreased demand)

Oil down on stronger US crude, gasoline supplies: Financial News - Yahoo! Finance