CRUDE OIL UPDATES, INVENTORY REPORTS

Crude oil inventories declined 5.05 million barrels to 344.2 million last week, the American Petroleum Institute said. Gasoline stockpiles rose 2.76 million barrels to 212.7 million, the report showed while inventories of distillates, including heating oil and diesel, rose 67,000 barrels. Inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange, dropped 404,000 barrels to 32.3 million. Maria, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, gained speed on a path that may take it toward refineries in Canada.