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Crude Prices Down After Data

Simon Constable

Energy prices were generally on the decline Wednesday as news of a jump in crude output and climbing inventories sent already weak oil futures lower.

Front-month contracts for light sweet crude were recently down 54 cents at $63.86 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Gasoline futures were off 2 cents at $2.23 a gallon, while heating oil was losing 5 cents at $1.84 a gallon. Natural gas futures went against the trend and were tacking on 3 cents at $7.75 per million British thermal units.

The Energy Information Administration published figures showing that domestic production of crude oil was up 3.6% in the last four weeks, compared with the same period a year earlier. Inventories of oil were up a more-than-expected 0.6% over the prior week also.

Gasoline stocks fell, while those for fuel oil essentially held steady.

Among equities, drilling-services company Transocean(RIG Quote) reported better-than-expected first-quarter earnings, citing strong demand for drilling in deep water and an overflowing order book.

The news boosted the stock more than 2% recently.

Meanwhile, gas and electric firm Dominion Resources(D Quote) reported a slight drop in first-quarter earnings, and its shares slipped 0.3%.

Elsewhere, shares of Devon Energy(DVN Quote) were rallying more than 2% after the oil and gas company easily exceeded analysts' quarterly expectations.

Prices of the energy exchange-traded funds were slipping along with the futures. The U.S. Oil(USO Quote) and the iPath Goldman Sachs Crude Oil Index(OIL Quote) were both lower by about 1.6% in recent action.