Oil prices fall as supplies rise

Oil prices hovered around $92 per barrel Wednesday after the government reported a bigger-than-expected increase in US crude supplies. Extra gasoline in storage projected lower demand, pushing oil prices down. 

|
Redd Saxon/AP/File
In this Tuesday, Oct. 9 file photo, a Chevron station posts gasoline prices starting at $5.50 per gallon in downtown Los Angeles. Oil prices fell Wednesday due to a high US supply level.

Oil prices gave up early gains and hovered around $92 per barrel on Wednesday after the government reported a bigger-than-expected increase in U.S. crude supplies.

Supplies rose by 2.9 million barrels last week. That was almost double what analysts had forecast, according to Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Gasoline supplies also rose. Analysts had predicted a decline.

The extra gasoline and oil in storage tends to push prices down, because it suggests that there's enough to go around, or that demand is low.

In midday trading on Wednesday, oil was down 7 cents to $92.02 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Oil had been trading above $92 per barrel earlier in morning, as European stocks had a positive day, and hopes grew that Spain might be on the verge of requesting a bailout.

Gasoline prices at the pump fell almost 2 cents, to $3.756 per gallon, according to AAA.

The waffling oil prices matched stock indexes that are also mixed in midday trading. Technology giants IBM and Intel both said customers are holding back. Economic weakness generally means less demand for oil, pushing prices down.

Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties of oil, fell 80 cents to $113.20 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

— Heating oil fell 2 cent to $3.17 per gallon.

— Natural gas gained 5 cent to $3.48 per 1,000 cubic feet.

— Wholesale gasoline fell 6 cents to $2.79 per gallon.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Oil prices fall as supplies rise
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Latest-News-Wires/2012/1017/Oil-prices-fall-as-supplies-rise
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe