Oil dwelled near $89 a barrel Thursday in Asia after U.S. crude supplies dropped more than expected and markets waited to see if the European Central Bank would deliver on its promise of bold action to overcome the region's debt crisis, according to AP. Benchmark crude was down 12 cents at $88.81 a barrel at midafternoon Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 85 cents to settle at $88.91 in New York on Wednesday after the Energy Information Administration said U.S. oil stockpiles fell by a surprising 6.5 million barrels last week, four times what analysts forecast. But the decline was mainly due to a drop in crude imports, not to a pick-up in demand for oil. Gasoline supplies also dropped unexpectedly last week, according to the EIA. Brent crude was up 54 cents at $106.50 on the ICE futures exchange in London. The key event for markets from stocks to currencies and commodities is the ECB's meeting Thursday. In other futures trading, heating oil was up 1 cent at $2.869 a gallon and wholesale gasoline was up 2.1 cents at $2.855 a gallon. Natural gas dropped 1.1 cent to $3.16 per 1,000 cubic feet.
