Oil Barely Changed on Mixed US Supply Report

Prices for oil and gasoline barely budged on Wednesday.

Benchmark crude for September delivery rose 2 cents to close at $106.85 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Meanwhile, the average price for a gallon of gasoline held steady at $3.54. That’s down 7 cents from a month ago, and 16 cents cheaper than at this time last year.

The latest supply report from the Energy Department was a mixed bag. Crude oil supplies fell by 2.8 million barrels, about double what analysts expected. But a 1.2-million-barrel decline in gasoline supplies fell short of expectations for a drop of 2 million barrels.

Brent crude, traded on the ICE Futures exchange in London, rose 38 cents to $110.20 a barrel.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

• Heating oil was flat at $3.05 a gallon.
• Wholesale gasoline rose 3 cents to $2.85 a gallon.
• Natural gas added 6 cents to $3.34 per 1,000 cubic feet.