Crude again breaches $100 level before retreating

Crude oil prices hit a new record in New York on Thursday before declining to close a bit lower than Wednesday’s ending price.

February contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude went as high as $100.09 per barrel before settling back to close 44 cents lower at $99.18 per barrel.

Crude oil stockpiles dropped much more than had been expected, according to the weekly inventories report from the US Energy Information Administration, falling 4 million barrels to 289.6 million barrels in the week ending December 28.

Inventories at the key Cushing, Oklahoma depot remained unchanged at 17.5 million barrels.

While crude oil stockpiles fell over all, gasoline inventories rose 1.9 million barrels last week to 207.8 million barrels, while distillates in storage were up 600,000 barrels to 127.2 million barrels.

Nymex February gasoline was 3 cents lower to $2.54 per gallon and February heating oil was down 2 cents to 2.72 per gallon while March natural gas dropped 16 cents to $7.71 per million British thermal units.

Analysts pointed out that recent low trade volumes due to the holidays likely exaggerated price swings.