WTI up slightly as Brent declines in London

Trade was light in crude oil futures at midday in New York on Tuesday. Prices were mixed, with April contracts West Texas Intermediate crude up just 1 cent to $56.60 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the absence of any substantial news, and with April contracts expiring at the end of the session, traders were waiting to see what the Energy Information Administrations has to say about inventories on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Brent crude for May delivery dropped 13 cents to $60.39 on the Intercontinental Exchange in London.

Analysts expect that the new US inventories numbers will show that crude oil stockpiles were up by 1.4 million barrels last week, while they anticipate a decline of 1.1 million barrels in distillates inventories and a drop of 1.4 million barrels of gasoline in storage. That drop in gasoline stockpiles, added to anticipation of the upcoming summer driving season, sent Nymex gasoline as high as $1.985 per gallon before it backed off to $1.9605 per gallon, up just a fraction over Monday’s closing price. Nymex heating oil was also up less than one cent, to $1.6896 per gallon. The price of natural gas was up 7.4 cents to $6.921 per 1,000 cubic feet.