Oil Rises to More Than $100 a Barrel
Oil rose more than $1 to finish the trading day Wednesday over $100 a barrel, the highest closing price in 14 months, Bloomberg News reported.
Crude futures gained $1.64 to finish trading at $101.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing price since May 3, 2012. Oil has gained more than $7 since June 24.
The increase was due in part to a Department of Energy report that showed lower crude supplies and on traders’ concern that Egyptian unrest will disrupt supplies, Bloomberg said.
Crude supplies fell by 10.4 million barrels last week, the biggest decline this year, DOE said Wednesday in its weekly inventory report.
The supply downturn was a much bigger decline than the 2.25 million-barrel drop that was forecast by analysts, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline stockpiles fell 1.7 million barrels, in contrast to the 700,000-barrel gain forecast by analysts, while distillates, which include diesel, fell by 2.4 million barrels.
Diesel’s pump price has slid 7.3 cents in six straight declines, while gasoline has dropped almost 16 cents in three straight downturns, according to DOE figures.
