Oil Closes at New Record High
Oil closed Wednesday at a record high price of $110.87 a barrel, after earlier topping $112 for the first time in intraday trading, the Associated Press reported.
The gains followed a Department of Energy report that showed inventories of oil, gasoline and distillates declined last week.
Oil topped out on the New York Mercantile Exchange at an intraday record $112.21 a barrel on Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported.
Both previous records were set last month, with the former intraday record of $111.80 set on March 17 and the previous record closing of $110.33 set on March 13.
Oil stockpiles fell by 3.2 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, DOE said in its weekly inventory report released Wednesday. Analysts had forecast a 2.3 million-barrel gain, Bloomberg said.
Gasoline and heating oil futures also reached records on the Nymex, Bloomberg said. Heating oil futures are a close proxy to diesel, as both are distillate fuels.
DOE’s report said distillate inventories fell by 3.7 million barrels last week, while gasoline stockpiles fell by 3.4 million barrels.
