Oil Prices Slip on Increase in Supplies

WASHINGTON – Oil prices traded just below $60 a barrel Wednesday as fresh government data showed supplies of oil, gasoline and heating oil rose last week.

Light sweet crude for January delivery fell 14 cents to $59.80 a barrel in morning trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Heating oil edged up less than a penny to $1.775 a gallon while gasoline fell less than a cent to $1.577 a gallon. Natural gas increased nearly 29 cents to $13.78 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In its weekly petroleum supply report, the Energy Department said U.S. inventories of crude oil grew last week by 2.7 million barrels to 320.3 million barrels, or 11 percent above last year.

Inventories of distillate fuel, such as heating oil and diesel, rose by 2.7 million barrels to 130.6 million barrels, or about 6 percent higher than last year.

Gasoline inventories rose by 2.7 million barrels to 202.6 million barrels, or 4 percent below last year.

Oil and natural gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico have partly recovered from damage earlier this year by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but still have a long way to go. About a quarter of the region’s daily natural gas output, and a third of its oil output, is still down.