Crude oil prices rose above $70 a barrel Wednesday after the U.S. government reported that gasoline inventories grew at a slow clip last week, despite high production levels.
Light sweet crude for August delivery rose 76 cents to $70.10 a barrel in early afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. July gasoline futures rose 4.94 cents to $2.055 per gallon.
The build in U.S. gasoline inventories was 300,000 barrels, even as gasoline production surged to 9.35 million barrels a day, up 1.5 percent from a week earlier and more than 4 percent higher than a year ago – suggesting that fuel demand isn’t being hampered by high prices.
