Crude oil futures rose Thursday after a government report of a drop in heating oil stockpiles and a recovery on world stock markets outweighed investors' concerns about the U.S. economy, reported The Associated Press. In its weekly inventory report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said supplies of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 1.3 million barrels last week. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected distillate supplies to remain unchanged. The surprise drop in distillate stockpiles appeared to counter a slight increase in supplies of crude oil and an unexpected jump in gasoline inventories. Domestic crude inventories rose last week by 2.3 million barrels, slightly more than analysts had expected. Gasoline inventories jumped by 5 million barrels, more than triple analyst expectations. Light, sweet crude for March delivery rose 97 cents to $87.96 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil prices have fallen in recent days on concerns about the economy. Analysts say energy futures have been following equity markets, which dropped earlier this week on recession worries. But the stock market's late recovery on Wednesday, as well as overnight rallies by stock markets in Europe and Asia, helped push energy futures higher earlier Thursday, before the Energy Department issued its report. Energy investors often view stocks as a proxy for economic growth, fearing that a slowdown would curtail demand for oil and petroleum products such as gasoline and heating oil. Other energy futures were mixed. February gasoline slid 0.16 cent to $2.2492 a gallon on the Nymex, and February heating oil rose 2.94 cents to $2.4525 a gallon. February natural gas rose 11.9 cents to $7.74 per 1,000 cubic feet on the Nymex. In a separate report, the EIA said natural gas inventories fell last week by 155 billion cubic feet, in line with expectations.
