A recent survey has revealed that oil supplies increased by 1%, a two-year high. The increase was reported as a result of the comeback of refineries on line and the recovery of prices after a decline of two years.

According to a report of 11 analysts, the oil inventories surged 0.4% or 1.5 million barrels till May 6 as compared to 366.5 million last week. The report will be presented in front of the Energy Department tomorrow in Washington.

The stockpiles have rose 9.3% this year. Analysts believe that an increase of 110,001 barrels in the week is expected to attract more investors.

The US imports were at an average rate of 9.06 million barrels a day over the past year. The Energy Department said that the crude oil imports rose 15% to 9.27 million barrels a day in the week ended April 22, but later fell 4.2% to
8.88 million barrels a day in the week ended April 29.

Tim Evans, an Energy Analyst at Citi Futures Perspective in New York, said that the inventory data shows that the country has plenty of crude oil and the refineries are operating at fairly low rates.