Oil Slips from One-Month High But Remains Over $77 a Barrel
Oil slipped early Thursday from a one-month high but remained over $77 a barrel, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures fell 42 cents to $77.25 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a day after rising 73 cents to finish the trading day Wednesday at $77.67, Bloomberg reported.
Crude and gasoline wholesale prices both rose Wednesday following a Department of Energy report that showed refineries trimmed operating rates, Bloomberg said.
Gasoline inventories fell 650,000 barrels last week, DOE said in its weekly report. Refineries operated at 87.9% of capacity, down 1.2% from the prior week.
Crude stockpiles rose 1.7 million barrels, in contrast to the 1-million barrel decline forecast by economists, Bloomberg said.
Distillates, which include diesel, rose 1.8 million barrels for the week ended Saturday, better than the 1-million barrel gain forecast by economists, Bloomberg reported.
Separately, oil company BP tentatively agreed to put about $20 billion over time into a fund to pay damages resulting from the ongoing Gulf of Mexico oil spill, following a meeting of the company’s executives at the White House, Bloomberg reported.
