Oil prices were steady ahead of the release later Thursday of U.S. fuel inventory data expected to show crude stockpiles fell last week. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 11 cents to US$96.08 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, midafternoon in Singapore. In the weekly inventory data, oil supplies are expected to fall by 1.2 million barrels, according to the mean of forecasts by analysts in a Dow Jones Newswires survey. Heating oil futures rose 0.51 cent to US$2.6463 a gallon (3.8 liters) while gasoline prices added 0.24 cent to US$2.455 a gallon. Natural gas futures were flat at US$7.046 per 1,000 cubic feet. In London, February Brent crude futures rose 7 cents to US$94.01 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange, according to a report of the Associated Press.
