Oil prices hovered below $103 a barrel Thursday in Asia after a report showed mixed signs about U.S. crude demand, AP reported. Benchmark crude for February delivery fell 59 cents to $102.63 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 26 cents to settle at $103.22 in New York on Wednesday. In London, Brent crude fell 3 cents at $113.67 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange. The American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday that crude inventories fell 4.4 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted a decrease of 450,000 barrels. However, inventories of gasoline added 3.4 million barrels last week while distillates rose 5.2 million barrels, the API said. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data later Thursday. Brent crude could temporarily jump to as high as $210 if the strait were closed, Capital Economics said. Capital Economics expects Brent to trade at $85 at the end of this year while Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecasts an average price of $108 in 2012. In other Nymex trading, heating oil fell 1.2 cents at $3.08 per gallon and gasoline futures fell 1.5 cents at $2.77 per gallon. Natural gas futures were down 1.3 cents to $3.08 per 1,000 cubic feet.
