Oil prices fell slightly Wednesday as U.S. crude oil supplies rose but refined fuel stocks fell.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December, fell 2 cents to close at 58.71 dollars a barrel.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December dropped cents to settle at 58.98 dollars a barrel.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose last week but supplies of refined products fell, the Energy Department reported Wednesday in its weekly survey.

In the week ended Oct. 27, inventories of crude oil rose 2 million barrels to 334.3 million, the survey showed. The gain was smaller than the 2.6 million barrel rise expected by analysts.

However, gasoline reserves fell 2.8 million barrels to 204.6 million last week. The drop was steeper than the decline of just 925,000 barrels that analysts had been expecting.

Supplies of distillate products, such as heating oil and dieselfuel, dropped by 2.7 million barrels to 141.3 million last week. That compared to a forecast fall of 1.2 million barrels.

The declines in stocks of refined products did not take analysts by surprise as U.S. refineries traditionally use October to conduct routine maintenance before the winter peak for fuel demand.