Crude oil price little changed as traders await data on U.S. supplies

The price of oil was nearly unchanged Tuesday as traders waited for the latest data on U.S. supplies.

Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for June delivery rose two cents to close at US$99.50 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, a benchmark for international varieties of oil, fell 66 cents to US$107.06 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

Data for the week ended May 2 is expected to show an increase of 1.3 million barrels in U.S. crude oil stocks and a draw of 900,000 barrels in gasoline stocks, according to a survey of analysts by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

The projected increase would bring U.S. oil supplies above 400 million barrels. Last week’s data showed crude oil supplies at 399.36 million barrels, the highest on record.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex, wholesale gasoline dropped two cents to US$2.89 a U.S. gallon (3.79 litres), heating oil fell two cents to US$2.89 a gallon and natural gas rose 11 cents to US$4.80 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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