Reply #3: Crude Oil Futures Fall

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE - Oil prices dipped Wednesday ahead of the release of a weekly U.S. government fuel inventories report later in the day expected to show a hefty increase in crude oil inventories.

Light, sweet crude for May delivery fell 16 cents to $62.18 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The April contract rose 15 cents to settle and expire at $60.57 a barrel on Tuesday.

According to a survey of 10 analysts by Dow Jones Newswires, U.S. commercial oil inventories were likely to have increased by 2 million barrels in the past week.

Gasoline stocks are expected to slide an estimated 700,000 barrels, while distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, were seen dropping 1.9 million barrels, even as operating rates at refineries rose.

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