Natural gas inventories held in underground storage in the lower 48 states rose by 16 billion cubic feet to about 3.45 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Nov. 14.

Analysts had expected little to no change in reserve levels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gas prices fell 2.7 cents overnight to $2.02 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express.

The average price for gasoline is on pace to fall below $2 nationally by the end of the week.

The decline comes as motorists continue to drive less. The Federal Highway Administration reported Wednesday that Americans drove 10.7 billion fewer miles, or 4.4 percent, in September than a year ago, the 11th straight monthly decline. Americans have now driven 90 billion fewer miles over those 11 months than they did the year before.

Rural interstate travel fell 8 percent in September and urban interstate travel declined by 3.9 percent.

Global markets fell hard, and so did Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 440 points Thursday after a 5 percent decline the day before.

Japan's benchmark Nikkei index fell 6.9 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was off 4 percent. London's FTSE index was down 2.5 percent, Germany's DAX index lost 2.8 percent and France's CAC-40 shed 3.5 percent.

Also Goldman Sachs, which earlier this year predicted oil would reach $200 a barrel, said Wednesday that it was discontinuing its weekly energy report.

"The volatility in the past few weeks has mostly been to the downside and the pressure on the oil complex has increased," the report said. "In the near term, we do not expect significant upside potential and as a consequence we are closing all of our oil trading recommendations."

Goldman said it is moving to a near term price scenario of $50 a barrel, but keep a price target of $107 by year end 2009.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures tumbled 10 cents to settle at $1.0070 a gallon. Heating oil lost 8.38 cents to settle at $1.6759 a gallon while natural gas for December delivery slid 42.7 cents to settle at $6.316 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell $3.64 to settle at $48.08 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary, Alex Kennedy in Singapore and Christopher S. Rugaber in Washington contributed to this report.