WTI, Brent crude prices see gains

Crude oil prices were higher Thursday as the US dollar weakened and new jobless claims dropped by 11,000 last week in the United States.

September contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were up $1.25 to $78.24 per barrel at just after 1 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while Brent crude was most recently up $1.41 to $77.47 per barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London.

Nymex August gasoline futures added 3 cents in early afternoon trade to $2.09 per gallon while August heating oil futures were up 4 cents to $2.03 per gallon and September natural gas futures had gained 8 cents to $4.80 per million British thermal units.

The US Energy Information Administration reported that natural gas inventories in the US were up by 28 million cubic feet last week to 2.919 trillion cubic feet, against an expected gain of 31 to 35 billion cubic feet.

The gains put total natural gas in storage 8.9 percent above the five-year average but 3.1 percent below the level in storage in the same week last year, when the gain in stockpiles was 70 billion cubic feet.

The retail price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline in the United States was down slightly overnight to $2.744 per gallon on average nationally, while the pump price for mid-grade fuel was also down, to an average of $2.913 per gallon, and the average cost for a gallon of premium unleaded fell slightly to $2.952 per gallon on average.

Gasoline is still most expensive in Alaska, with an average pump price of $3.511 per gallon for regular unleaded, while South Carolina residents are paying the lowest price at an average of $2.523 per gallon for regular unleaded.