May 30, 2003	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 27,1424

WASHINGTON, May 29: US crude oil stocks rose over the past week, according to government and industry surveys released on Thursday, although gasoline supplies shrank ahead of the US vacation season.

The US Department of energy said crude oil inventories for the week to May 23 were up 1.1 million barrels to 286.2m barrels.

A separate report by the American Petroleum Institute showed a rise of 3.7 million barrels to 286.37 million barrels.

Although the two surveys showed virtually the same level of oil inventories last week, the API had indicated a decline the prior week, differing from the government survey.

Gasoline stocks fell 3.4 million barrels to 205m barrels, according to DoE. According to the API, the supplies fell 2.31m barrels to 206.62m barrels.—AFP