Crude oil prices rise on decline in gasoline inventories

Crude oil prices were higher on Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories report. Stockpiles of gasoline fell by 700,000 barrels in the week ending June 22 after predictions that inventories would be 1.1 million barrels higher during the week. Demand was high, up 1.4 percent from last year at the same time and averaging 9.54 million barrels per day over the past four weeks. Despite the drop in gasoline inventories, refinery utilization was 1.8 percent higher to 89.4 percent during the week. The gain was better than expected but remains under the five-year average. Distillate stockpiles were also lower, dropping by 2.3 million barrels during the week, while crude oil inventories grew by 1.6 million barrels last week.

Contracts for Brent crude were 73 cents higher to $70.90 per barrel in the Intercontinental exchange while West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery added $1.10 to $68.87 per barrel after having dropped as low as $67.07 earlier in the session. Nymex gasoline July contracts were up a bit more than 2 cents to $2.2672 per gallon., while July heating oil was more than 4 cents higher to $2.035 per gallon.