Oil prices gained slightly in Asian trading Thursday after U.S. government data showed that domestic inventories of crude oil, gasoline and heating oil fell last week.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery rose 23 cents (U.S.) to $62.42 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract on Wednesday fell 24 cents to settle at $62.19 a barrel.
January Brent crude at London's ICE Futures exchange rose 32 cents to $63.39 a barrel.
In its latest petroleum supply report released Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy's statistical arm, said domestic inventories of crude oil fell by 1.1 million barrels last week to 339.7 million barrels, or 5.4 per cent above year-ago levels.
Gasoline stocks declined by 1.1 million barrels to 200 million barrels, or 2.6 per cent less than a year ago.
Inventories of distillate fuel, which include heating oil and diesel, shrank by 400,000 barrels to 132.4 million barrels, or 1 per cent below year-ago levels.
The decline in inventories came as refinery utilization rose 2.4 percentage points to 90.5 per cent of operating capacity.
Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had predicted a build of less than 1 million barrels in both gasoline and crude stocks, and a modest drawdown in distillate stocks.
Also supporting prices was uncertainty ahead of a meeting next week of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. OPEC officials have been pressing in recent days for a cut in output on top of a production cut of 1.2 million barrels a day, approved in October.
Weighing on energy prices were expectations of milder temperatures in the United States. Temperatures in the Northeast, the nation's largest heating oil market, were expected to moderate later in the week, with the National Weather Service forecasting above-normal temperatures through most of the nation next week.
Heating oil futures rose half a cent to $1.7990 a gallon while natural gas prices added 3.8 cents to $7.765 per 1,000 cubic feet.
