Crude Settles Below $100 a Barrel

Oil prices remained under $100 a barrel Thursday after earlier rising over $102, Bloomberg reported.

In a volatile trading session, crude futures reached as high as $102.24 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, up more than $5 from Wednesday’s closing price of $97.16, Bloomberg said.

The Department of Energy said Wednesday that crude stockpiles fell by 6.3 million barrels last week, while gasoline supplies fell by 3.3 million barrels.

Distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, fell by 900,000 barrels, DOE said in its weekly inventory report.

The crude downturn was bigger than economists’ forecasts of a 3.5 million barrel decline, Bloomberg said.

Tuesday’s $91.15 Nymex closing price had been the lowest since oil closed at $88.11 on Feb. 7.