WTI declines after hitting new record high

After going as high as $98.62 per barrel, a new record, West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery was down 25 cents to $96.45 at the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday, while December contracts for Brent crude dropped 41 cents to $92.85 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex December gasoline traded even at $2.44 per gallon and December heating oil added 1 cent to $2.62 per gallon, while December natural gas was 24 cents lower to $7.62 per million British thermal units.

Crude prices were lower after the US Energy Information Administration issued its weekly inventories report, which showed that stockpiles did not fall as much as had been anticipated in the week ending 2 November.

While oil stocks at an important terminal in Oklahoma dropped by 1.7 million barrels during the week, over all inventories in the US were only down by 800,000 barrels, half the decline that had been anticipated.

Gasoline inventories were also down by 800,000 barrels during the week against an expected increase of 200,000 barrels, while distillates gained 100,000 barrels in storage when a decline had been predicted.

Refinery utilization remained at 86.2 percent during the week.