Crude Oil Price Climbs Following Report of Lower Inventories

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rude oil prices rose to their highest level in three months Wednesday following a bigger-than-expected drop in inventories, Bloomberg reported.

Benchmark light sweet crude oil futures rose 26 cents to close at $63.72 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest closing price since Sept. 18, Bloomberg reported.

In the past six months, oil prices have swung from a record high closing price of $77.03 in mid-July to a low of $55.81 in mid-November.

Crude inventories dropped 6.3 million barrels last week, the Department of Energy reported Wednesday. That was well over the 2 million-barrel drop predicted by analysts, Bloomberg said.

Meanwhile, distillate stockpiles, which include diesel and heating oil, rose last week for the first time in three months, rising by 1.2 million barrels, DOE said in its weekly inventory report.

Distillates were forecast by analysts to fall by 600,000 barrels, Bloomberg reported.