Crude prices fall Thursday morning

New York -- Crude prices fell Thursday morning on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the government said U.S. stockpiles had risen on the week.

The Energy Information Administration said crude oil stockpiles gained and gasoline inventories fell. Some analysts concluded that demand was down.

On the exchange, crude prices fell $1.09 Thursday morning to $103.74 per barrel.

The price of heating oil dropped 0.028 cents to $2.923 per gallon.

The price of reformulated blendstock gasoline fell 0.045cents $2.7286 per gallon.

Natural gas prices dropped 0.036 cents to $9.796 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline in the United States reached $3.289 from Wednesday's price of $3.287, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.