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Oil prices rise, trade near $63 a barrel
Larger-than-expected decline in U.S. domestic gas stockpiles

Updated: 28 minutes ago
SINGAPORE - Oil and gasoline prices rose Thursday after the U.S. government reported dwindling domestic gasoline stockpiles in the face of unflagging demand.

Total U.S. gasoline stockpiles sank by 5.5 million barrels last week to 199.7 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Analysts had expected a 1.3 million barrel decline, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires.

The report spurred traders to extend their gaze beyond the short term to the larger picture, with unrelenting demand exacerbating already tight supplies, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading Corp. in Chicago.

Refineries are struggling to keep up as production problems persist, while the typical slack in demand between the winter heating season and summer driving months has yet to materialize, he said.

“This is going to be a very interesting foot race between supply and demand,” he said. “Price seems to be no object for the consumer right now.”

Gasoline futures rose .13 cent to $2.1600 per gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Meanwhile, alternative fuel ethanol hit a 7-month high, corresponding to an overall rise in gas prices since last August.

Ethanol futures rose 4.3 cents to $2.280 on the Chicago Board of Trade.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose 94 cents to $62.95 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for May rose 22 cents to $68.06 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Tensions over Iran’s defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand that it cease uranium enrichment also supported prices, along with a warning from the International Energy Agency that OPEC production was at its lowest point in more than two years.

Oil prices have been volatile the last couple of weeks, gaining nearly $5 a barrel after Iran detained 15 British sailors and marines, dropping on their release last Thursday, and then sliding almost $3 Monday on expectations of oversupply at a key North American delivery point before slowly recovering somewhat.

In Paris, the International Energy Agency warned that output by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting countries had slid to its lowest level in more than two years on production outages and self-imposed cuts.

Still, a Platts survey of OPEC production last month said the average 26.54 million barrels pumped a day by OPEC members under quotes still represented overproduction of 740,000 barrels a day above the group’s production target.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures gained 1.13 cents, fetching $1.8860 a gallon, while natural gas prices rose nearly 1.5 cents to $7.870 per 1,000 cubic feet.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12400801/