http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i5TtajgUpSm7KY5jf-lCJGHBB-tAD985DILO1Oil, gasoline prices rise ahead of supply report
By CHRIS KAHN – 7 hours ago
NEW YORK (AP) — Energy prices wavered after OPEC reported that member states had increased oil production for the first time since July despite a huge glut in supply.
Benchmark crude for June delivery rose 22 cents to $59.07 a barrel Wednesay on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices dropped 13 cents to $58.07 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
Prices for gasoline have been rising across the country and did so again overnight after the AAA reported that more Americans would hit the road this Memorial Day, the first time that has happened in four years.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the national average price for gasoline rose nearly 87 percent between 2005 and 2008.
Retail gas prices rose to a new national average of $2.267 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. Prices are 21.6 cents a gallon more expensive than last month, but they're $1.465 a gallon cheaper than a year ago.
Gasoline futures traded on Nymex also rose.
The enormous amount of crude, gasoline and natural gas in storage has kept prices in check. While those levels continue to rise, the pace has been slowing.
Analysts expect the government to report that storage levels rose another 1.4 million barrels Wednesday.
But the American Petroleum Institute disagreed. It said oil stocks fell 3.13 million barrels to 370.7 million last week.
"If the DOE confirms those drawdowns, we might be testing the $60 level again," Alaron Trading Corp. analyst Phil Flynn said.
Oil prices broke the $60 barrier for the first time this year on Tuesday.
In other Nymex trading, gasoline for June delivery rose less than a penny to $1.6776 a gallon and heating oil dropped a tenth of a cent to $1.506 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery lost 2.9 cents to $4.42 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.
Topic: Oil rising and rising, 60$ a barrel.... (Read 549 times)