Crude and gasoline futures rise on supply data

Oil prices rose Wednesday after a government report said the nation's gasoline supply dropped unexpectedly.

Benchmark crude for November delivery added $1.55 at $68.26 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude rose $1.34 to $66.83 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The Energy Information Administration put U.S. gasoline stockpiles at 211.5 million barrels last week, a drop of 0.8 percent from the prior week. However, supplies are still considered to be well above normal. They're nearly 11 percent higher than they were last year, and much of last week's drop came as many U.S. refiners cut back on their operations.

Petroleum supplies have been growing most of the year as trucking companies shipped fewer goods, and a growing number of unemployed workers kept their cars out of the morning commute.

It's unclear when Americans will regain their appetite for petroleum.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is "very likely over" but the unemployment rate is still expected to top 10 percent this year, forcing the economy to recover at a sluggish pace.

The Commerce Department reported Wednesday that the economy shrank in the spring at a pace of 0.7 percent, which was not as bad as analysts had expected. But the Chicago Purchasing Managers Index showed that the Midwestern manufacturing sector was weaker than expected.

At the pump, retail gas prices fell by less than a penny overnight to a new national average of $2.479 a gallon, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular gas is 13.1 cents cheaper than last month and $1.154 less than in the same period last year.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for October delivery rose 5.15 cents to $1.6796 a gallon, and heating oil advanced 5.1 cents to $1.7516 a gallon. Natural gas added 1 cent at $4.885 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.