Oil Rises on Surprise Inventories Drop

The Energy Intelligence Agency Wednesday reported a surprise drop in crude inventories for the week ending Aug. 8, and crude markets are moving higher at the New York Mercantile Exchange on the news.

West Texas crude for September delivery was recently adding $2.99 at $116.00 a barrel, and Brent crude was gaining $2.30 at $113.45 a barrel. Reformulated gasoline is edging 5 cents higher at $2.89 a gallon, Heating Oil is also up 5 cents at $3.12 a gallon, and near-term natural gas is 16 cents lower at $8.16 per million British thermal units.

Today's EIA report predict that commercial crude oil inventories dropped 400,000 barrels from the previous week -- which was in line with what most analysts were forecasting. However, total U.S. motor gasoline inventories fell by 6.4 million barrels during the week, distillate stores fell 1.7 million barrels, and propane inventories rose by 2 million barrels. This brought total commercial petroleum inventories down 5.4 million barrels during the week. ...