Oil hits $65 a barrel as supplies remains high and usage stays low

Oil hits $65 a barrel as supplies remain high and usage stays low

Oil prices closed above $65 per barrel Thursday for the first time in six months as OPEC maintained crude production levels as expected and a pair of reports suggested a slightly brighter economic picture. Benchmark crude for July delivery added $1.63 to settle at $65.08 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Retail gasoline prices have shadowed oil prices, ticking higher every day this month. Gasoline prices are not only rising because of crude. Refiners, stung by falling demand for gasoline, have cut back sharply on production this year. U.S. energy consumption still hovers at its lowest level in a decade, however, because of the recession. The Energy Information Administration said Thursday that U.S. storage facilities added another 106 billion cubic feet of natural gas last week, putting the overall surplus well above the five-year average. That’s largely because manufacturers and other big industrial power users have been slashing production and cutting jobs.


by the associated press