Crude oil prices rise on Wednesday

New York -- Crude oil prices rose $1.11 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, in spite of a gain in U.S. stockpiles reported Wednesday.

U.S. inventories jumped 9.4 million barrels to a total supply of 305.9 million barrels for the week ending Aug. 15, the Energy Information Administration said.

Crude oil prices climbed, anyway, hitting $115.65 per barrel.

Heating oil prices rose 0.0484 cents to $3.1721 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices rose 0.0511 cents to $2.915 per gallon. Natural gas prices rose 0.121 cents to $8.097 per million British thermal units.

The national average retail price of unleaded regular gasoline fell 0.013 cents from Tuesday's price to $3.717 per gallon, the AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International.