US crude oil gains on large inventory draw

Crude oil prices made modest gains Thursday after the government's weekly inventory report showed a sharp draw in the week ending Friday, Dec. 6. Inventories of crude oil dropped by 10.6 million barrels in the week to 375.2 million. Supplies remain above the upper limit of the average range for this time of year, but the draw was more than expected. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, West Texas Intermediate crude added 17 cents to $97.61 per barrel. Reformulated gasoline blendstock for January gave up 2.49 cents to $2.6362 a gallon. January heating oil lost 3.38 cents to settle at $2.9874 a gallon while natural gas added 7 cents to reach $4.40 per million British thermal units. The national average price of unleaded regular gasoline dropped to $3.253 a gallon from Wednesday's $3.257 a gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.