Oil prices rose Wednesday in Asian trading ahead of the release of U.S. fuel inventory data expected to show a drop in domestic gasoline stocks. Light, sweet crude for June delivery added 26 cents to US$64.66 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract fell US$1.31 to US$64.40 a barrel Tuesday. Brent crude for June was up 35 cents at US$67.35 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London, the Associated Press reported. Gasoline futures rose a tad to US$2.2457 a gallon (3.8 liters). The report is also expected to show crude stocks were forecast to rise by 1.15 million barrels, while distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, were likely to grow by 210,000 barrels on average. Heating oil futures dropped 0.61 cent to US$1.889 a gallon while natural gas prices added 0.5 cent to US$7.723 per 1,000 cubic feet.
