Oil Slips Before US Energy Report

SINGAPORE: Oil prices hovered above $81 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed mixed evidence about U.S. crude demand.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 5 cents to $81.54 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost 38 cents to settle at $81.49 on Tuesday.

Oil has jumped about 17 percent since early last month on increased investor confidence in this year’s global economic growth. But crude demand from the U.S., the world’s largest consumer of oil, has remained sluggish.

Crude inventories jumped last week by 6.5 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday. Analysts, eyeing a cold weather spell in much of the U.S. this month, had expected a drop of 1.6 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

However, inventories of gasoline and distillates fell more than analysts expected, the API said.

The Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration is scheduled to announce its supply report later Wednesday.

In other Nymex trading in April contracts, heating oil rose 0.44 cent to $2.0942 a gallon, and gasoline gained 0.83 cent to $2.2686 a gallon. Natural gas was down 1.1 cents at $4.505 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude was up 9 cents at $80.00 on the ICE futures exchange.