Gasoline stockpiles drop 1.1 million barrels last week

Crude oil prices rose slightly on Wednesday after the weekly US inventories report from the Energy Information Administration showed that crude oil, gasoline, and distillates stockpiles were all lower last week. Crude oil inventories were down by 1.1 million barrels, much more than the 0.2 million barrel decline that had been projected. Gasoline stockpiles were also 1.1 million barrels lower on an expected drop of only 0.3 million barrels, while distillate inventories were down 0.4 million barrels, slightly less than the 0.5 million barrel decline that had been predicted.

Brent crude January deliveries were up 17 cents to $63.40 per barrel in London, while January contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude added just 2 cents to $62.45 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Nymex January unleaded gasoline held steady at $1.6360 per gallon, while January heating oil dropped a quarter of a cent to $1.7980 pr gallon. With natural gas inventories at record highs, Nymex January Henry Hub was unmoved at $7.695 per million British thermal units.