Crude oil prices rise slightly

New York -- Crude oil prices gained slightly Thursday to $124.71 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after a drop of more than $4 per barrel Wednesday.

Crude oil prices have dropped more than $22 from the July 11 record of more than $147 per barrel. Analysts point to the weakening economy as undermining the demand for oil, a theory supported by a U.S. Energy Information
Administration report Wednesday that said U.S. gasoline inventories rose by 2.8 million barrels in the week ending July 18.

On the exchange Thursday morning, the price of crude gained 0.27 cents to $124.71 per barrel. The price of heating oil rose 0.0239 cents to $3.574 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0019 cents to $3.0325 per gallon. Natural gas prices fell 0.066 cents to $9.722 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline fell 0.016 cents to $4.026 per gallon, AAA said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.