Chicago:  The Midwest and West Coast may have tighter fuel supplies between March and June than other parts of the country because of planned refinery outages, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said in a report on Friday.

"Regionally, the Midwest exhibits the tightest potential balance mainly due to planned" outages of gasoline-making fluid catalytic crackers, the EIA said. "Midwest outages can be backed up by Gulf Coast refineries, which are projected to have ample surplus capacity."

The report focuses on crude distillation and fluid catalytic cracker outages. Those units most directly affect production levels of gasoline and distillate, according to the report. Planned work, known as turnarounds, can involve the shutdown of process units or entire plants for maintenance, repair and testing.

Inventories

Gasoline inventories nationwide fell 1.04 million barrels to 221.3 million barrels last week, the lowest level since January 1, the Energy Department reported on April 14. Supplies were at the highest level for this time of the year since 1993.

"US refineries should be able to meet March-through-June fuel demand with available refinery process units for distillate and gasoline production net of outages," the EIA said. "This, in conjunction with relatively high inventories and extra import potential, indicates small potential for significant price impacts due to planned outages."

Cat cracker outages on the West Coast may also produce a "tighter balance than the overall US balance might imply, but available supply still appears adequate to meet demand projections."

Refiners boosted processing rates 1.1 percentage points to 85.6 per cent of capacity, the highest level since September 11, the department said. The amount of conventional gasoline blended with ethanol reached a record-high 4.68 million barrels a day.

Regular gasoline at the pump, averaged nationwide, rose 0.4 cent to $2.862 a gallon, AAA, the nation's biggest motoring organisation, said on Friday on its website.

Drilling

Oil and natural gas rigs operating in the US rose to the highest level since January 2009 as natural gas prices increased, according to data published by Baker Hughes Inc.

The combined oil and gas rig count rose by 15, or 1 per cent, to 1,491. It was the eighth consecutive gain. The count touched a 22-year high in 2008, peaking at 2,031. Gas rigs increased by 14 to 973, the highest level since February 2009. The gas rig count remained down 39 per cent from a peak of 1,606 in September 2008.

Gas for May delivery rose 5.4 cents, or 1.4 per cent, to settle at $4.039 per million British thermal units on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Friday. The price has gained 12 per cent in the past year.

Oil rigs rose by one to 506, the highest level since March 1991. Crude for May delivery dropped $2.27, or 2.7 per cent, to $83.24 a barrel on the Nymex. The price has gained 67 per cent in a year.