Oil Rises to $51 a Barrel

Oil closed the trading day Wednesday near $51 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following an Energy Department report that showed gasoline inventories declined last week, Bloomberg reported.

Crude futures climbed $1.05 to close at $50.97 a barrel on the Nymex after declining in the past two trading days, and hit $51 in after-hours trading following the market close, Bloomberg said.

Gasoline supplies last week fell by 4.7 million barrels, while oil inventories rose 4.1 million. Distillate inventories, which include diesel and heating oil, rose 1.8 million barrels, DOE said in its weekly inventory report.

An OPEC official said Sunday that the oil cartel would like to see oil at $70 a barrel in order to cover future production investments, Agence France-Presse reported.