WASHINGTON, Nov 28, 2007 (AP) -- U.S. oil supplies fell last week for the second straight period, according to government data published Wednesday.

For the week ending Nov. 23, crude oil inventories fell by 400,000 barrels, or 0.1 percent, to 313.2 million barrels, the Energy Department said in its weekly report.

Analysts expected oil stockpiles, which are 6.7 percent below year-ago levels, to fall by 500,000 barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

Gasoline inventories rose by 1.4 million barrels, or 0.7 percent, to 196.6 million barrels, which is 3.7 percent below year-ago levels. Analysts expected stockpiles of the motor fuel to rise by 600,000 barrels.

Demand for gasoline over the four weeks ending Nov. 23 was 0.4 percent higher than a year earlier, averaging about 9.3 million barrels a day.

At the same time, U.S. refineries ran at 89.4 percent of total capacity on average, a gain of 2.4 percentage points. Analysts had forecast a rise of 0.6 percentage point.

Inventories of distillate fuel, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 100,000 barrels to 130.9 million barrels for the week ended Nov. 23. Analysts expected a drop of 1 million barrels.

At the pump, gas prices rose overnight to $3.10 a gallon for regular-grade gasoline and remain well above the year-ago average of $2.24 per gallon, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service. Retail gas prices are down from a May 24 peak of $3.23 per gallon.

Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 27 cents to $94.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in morning trading, more than $5 below its all-time high of $99.29 set last week.