June reformulated gasoline gained a penny, to $3.13/gallon.

The Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventory report yesterday, and it showed crude supplies climbing for the third straight week, up 5.7 million barrels for the week ended May 2. The three-week build is now nearly 12 million barrels.

Gasoline supplies rose 800,000 barrels, the EIA said, while distillate stocks were down 100,000 barrels. Refinery utilization fell to 85.0% of capacity from 85.4% a week earlier.

“This report is bearish, although it remains uncertain how much [it] will influence prices given the ebullient sentiment in the oil market,” wrote Chris Lafakis, of Moody’s Economy.com.

“It will be hard for the bulls to put horns on this bearish report,” said James Williams, of WTRG Economics, and he wryly suggested that “maybe we ought to call this the Goldman effect,” referring to Goldman Sachs’ projection for a $150-200/barrel oil price in the near future.

Yesterday marked the first week in a while where the Energy Information Administration’s weekly numbers didn’t surprise to the downside.

The EIA reported that crude stockpiles rose by 2.4 million barrels for the week ending April 18, which was slight above analysts’ expectations for a 2 million barrel increase.

The EIA also reported that U.S. gasoline supplies fell by 3.2 million barrels, vs. expectations for a drawdown of 2.25 million barrels, while distillate stocks fell by 1.4 million barrels as against projections for a buildup of 250,000 barrels.

U.S. refineries really ramped up production, operating at 85.6% of capacity, more than 4% higher than the previous week’s 81.4%, the EIA reported.

Analysts went fishing for a sense of direction. “With little in terms of resistance ’signposts’ to guide us, we would need the market to define a top for us, presumably by moving to new highs followed by a same-day reversal to daily lows,” speculated Edward Meir, of MF Global.