Oil prices rebounded to around $43 a barrel Thursday after an unexpected rise in U.S. crude inventories _ suggesting demand remains poor _ sparked a big drop in prices overnight, AP reported. Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 81 cents to $43.14 a barrel by midday in Europe on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent prices gained 79 cents to $42.19 on the ICE Futures exchange. Oil prices fell $3.38 on Wednesday to settle at $42.33 a barrel after the Energy Information Administration said crude supplies in the U.S. climbed unexpectedly by 700,000 barrels for the week ended March 6. Analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., expected a drop of 1 million barrels. The report also said U.S. demand for distillate fuel oil, which includes diesel fuel used by trucking companies, miners and manufacturers, dropped by 6.1 percent. Crude inventories had fallen in two of the previous three weeks. «Inventories in the last few weeks had a few traders believing that the excess supply was starting to vanish,» said Toby Hassall, an analyst with Commodity Warrants Australia in Sydney. «So the gain in crude inventories was catalyst for a sell-off.»
