Crude prices see some gains

Crude oil prices rose Thursday but could not stage much of a rally, even after a threat from Nigerian militants to destroy pipelines there soon as the US Energy Information Administration reported that demand in the United States was down 2.4 percent in the past four weeks.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.14 to $125.58 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after rising as high as $126.01 in overnight trade and going as low as $123.50 during the session, while Brent crude was last reported up 63 cents to $125.92 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

The EIA also reported that natural gas inventories gained 84 billion cubic feet to almost 84 billion cubic feet last week, driving the price for September contracts on Nymex down 61 cents to $9.24 per million British thermal units.

Nymex September heating oil futures were up 2 cents to $3.60 per gallon but August gasoline was down 11 cents to $3.03 per gallon.

At the pump prices for gasoline and diesel in the United States were down overnight as the price for regular unleaded gasoline dropped more than 1.5 cents to a national average of $4.026 per gallon while diesel fuel was down around a half cent to $4.788 per gallon on average.