Oil Falls to Near $76 a Barrel
Oil fell almost $1 to near $76 a barrel Wednesday, its biggest decline in two weeks, even as the Department of Energy reported that supplies declined last week.
Crude closed the day at $76.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, down 78 cents from Tuesday, Bloomberg reported.
Oil had closed the trading day Monday at $77.19 a barrel, its highest Nymex closing price since Aug. 11, according to Bloomberg figures.
Wednesday’s drop was due in part to a report that Enbridge Energy Partners would be allowed to reopen a pipeline supplying oil to the U.S. Midwest, Bloomberg said.
DOE said in its weekly report Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, about in line with economists’ forecasts.
Gasoline supplies declined by 700,000 barrels for the week ended Saturday, while distillates, which include diesel, dipped 350,000 barrels, DOE said.
