Oil Tops $73 a Barrel Heading Into Holiday Week

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il prices rose for the fifth straight day Wednesday and topped $73 a barrel Thursday following a Department of Energy report that showed declining gasoline inventories leading to the July 4 holiday week, news services reported.

Crude oil futures closed at $72.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange Wednesday, up 27 cents from Tuesday and the highest closing price since June 6, Bloomberg reported.

In intraday trading Thursday, oil was trading at $73.50 a barrel, Bloomberg said. It has been trading at more than $70 since June 21. Crude’s record closing price was $75.17, set on April 21.

Meanwhile, Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman approved requests by ConocoPhillips and Citgo Petroleum for releases of 500,000 and 250,000 barrels of oil, respectively, from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve for their Louisiana refineries, Bloomberg reported.

Gasoline inventories fell by 1.1 million barrels last week, DOE said in its weekly report. That was less than the 1.4 million-barrel decline forecast by analysts, Bloomberg said.