SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Energy prices tumbled across the board today after a government report showed U.S. oil reserves were much greater than expected, suggesting demand continues to fall.

Sweet crude for February delivery plummeted more than 9 percent, or $4.54, to $44.04 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the report was released.

The Energy Information Administration said inventories rose of commercial crude oil inventories rose 6.7 million barrels, well beyond the 1.5 million-barrel build expected by analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., can influence market trading.

Analyst Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates, said it was one of the more bearish EIA reports he's seen in a while.

"This will take a lot of steam out of the geopolitical argument that this Russian-Ukraine standoff is going to disrupt supplies appreciably," Ritterbusch said. "This report's telling us that we've got a big supply cushion out there that can easily absorb a temporary curtailment of European supply."