Oil Drops for First Time in Four Days
Oil prices slipped for the first time in four days Wednesday, following a Department of Energy report that showed crude and gasoline supplies fell last week, Bloomberg News reported.
Benchmark light sweet crude futures fell 13 cents to $106.70 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, Bloomberg reported.
Crude stockpiles fell by 2.8 million barrels last week, a bigger decline than the 1.5 million-barrel drop forecast by analysts, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline supplies fell 1.2 million barrels, while distillates, which include diesel, rose by 2 million barrels, DOE said in its weekly report.
The decline in gasoline supplies was in line with analysts’ forecasts, while distillates took a bigger jump than the 1 million-barrel gain predicted, Bloomberg reported.
Oil topped out at a 16-month high over $108 a barrel in mid-July and since then has closed Nymex trading at between $103 and $108 a barrel. Futures have not closed below $100 since July 3.
