Crude oil slips overnight

Crude oil prices slid toward $88 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, as traders waited for a weekly report on U.S. petroleum product inventories. Traders are expecting a slight draw down for the week. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil, however, dropped 34 cents to $88.26 per barrel Wednesday morning. Home heating oil added 0.26 cents to reach $3.0066 a gallon, while reformulated blendstock gasoline lost 1.2 cents to $2.677 a gallon. Henry Hub natural gas gained 5.4 cents to $3.597 per million British thermal units. At the pump, AAA reported a national average price for regular unleaded gasoline at $3.38 per gallon, down a tenth of a cent from Tuesday's $3.381.