Oil prices gain on lower US inventories

West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery was up 74 cents to $70.75 per barrel by roughly half an hour before the close of trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday after going above the $71 per barrel level in earlier trade on a new weekly inventories report from the US Energy Information Administration.

The EIA said that inventories of crude oil fell by 4.4 million barrel in the week ending 5 June to 361.6 million barrels, largely due to declines in imports and still 59.4 million barrels above stockpiles last year at this time, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.6 million barrels last week as output by refiners fell and demand grew, while distillates in storage dropped by 300,000 barrels.

In afternoon trade, Nymex July gasoline futures were up 3 cents to $2.00 per gallon.

Nymex July heating oil added 2 cents during the session to $1.83 per gallon while July natural gas declined 2 cents to $3.72 per million British thermal units.

Meanwhile, grains prices were mixed on the Chicago Board of Trade.

CBOT July soybeans added 1 cent to $12.45 per bushel in afternoon trade, but July corn was down 7 cents to $4.36 per bushel and July wheat dropped 17 cents to $5.96 per bushel.

August gold traded even at $954.70 per troy ounce while July silver added 9 cents to $15.23 per troy ounce and July platinum gained $15.30 to $1,273.20 per troy ounce, all in New York trade.

Among base metals, July copper traded about even at $2.37 per pound in New York.

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