Crude oil prices drop after inventories report

Crude oil prices were lower Wednesday afternoon after rising initially in the wake of US inventories reports that showed crude oil and distillates stockpiles lower last week, while gasoline inventories gains were higher than had been anticipated. Crude oil stockpiles were down by 400,000 barrels, when a gain of 950,000 barrels had been expected. Distillates inventories dropped by 3.7 million barrels; they had been expected to decline by 2.9 million barrels. Gasoline inventories, however, were up by 2.6 million barrels. Analysts had expected a gain in gasoline stockpiles, but the increase was only predicted to be around 1.35 million barrels.

After rising by 10 cents right after the inventories announcement, Brent crude for March delivery was $1.29 lower to $57.13 in London, while West Texas Intermediate crude March contracts were down $1.12 to $57.76 per barrel after a gain of 15 cents earlier. Heating oil futures were down over 2 cents to $1.6687 per gallon. Gasoline dropped almost 3 cents to $1.5454 per gallon.