HOUSTON, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- U.S. crude oil inventories decreased while the refining sector is continuing to run near capacity, according to a report released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Wednesday.

According to the Weekly Petroleum Status Report by the EIA, U.S. commercial crude oil inventories (excluding those in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve) of the week ending Jan. 5 decreased by 4.9 million barrels from the previous week.

At 419.5 million barrels, U.S. crude oil inventories are in the middle of the average range for this time of year.

Total products supplied over the last four-week period averaged 20.6 million barrels per day, up by 5.6 percent from the same period last year.

Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied averaged about 9.1 million barrels per day, up by 2.5 percent from the same period last year.

Distillate fuel product supplied averaged about 3.9 million barrels per day over the last four weeks, up by 6.8 percent from the same period last year. Jet fuel product supplied is up 13.47 percent compared to the same four-week period last year.

The national average retail regular gasoline price increased to 2.485 U.S. dollars per gallon on Jan. 3, 0.013 dollar above last week's price and 0.154 dollar more than a year ago. The national average retail diesel fuel price increased to 2.877 dollars per gallon, 0.026 dollar per gallon lower than last week and 0.337 dollar above a year ago.

On Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) took markets by surprise with a massive, 11-million-barrel inventory draw.

The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) price kept steady over 63 U.S. dollars per barrel following the EIA data release.