Oil prices were flat today after a moderate rise in the previous session on mixed interpretations of US fuel stocks data.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 2 cents to $76.88 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid morning in Singapore. The contract added 33 cents to settle at $76.86 a barrel yesterday.
Analysts say energy investors are engaged in a tug of war over the meaning of Wednesday's weekly inventory report from the US Energy Department's Energy Information Administration.
The report showed crude oil stocks declined by 6.5 million barrels last week, far more than the 690,000-barrel decline analysts had expected, on average.
The report also showed a steep jump in refinery activity and an increase in gasoline inventories. The build in gasoline stockpiles was particularly significant in that it comes at the height of the summer driving season, analysts said.
US gasoline prices rose to record levels in the spring on concerns the refining industry was not producing enough gasoline to meet summer demand. An unusual number of unexpected refinery outages in the Northern Hemisphere spring and early summer contributed to the price run-up.
September Brent crude dropped 8 cents to $75.68 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.
Nymex gasoline futures added 0.1 cent to $2.0372 a gallon, while heating oil prices advanced slightly to $2.075 a gallon. Natural gas gained 3.4 cents to $6.14 per 1,000 cubic feet.