Reply #3: Oil prices drop below $75 a barrel in Asia

[ozymandius]

SINGAPORE - Oil prices fell below $75 a barrel Friday after a U.S. weekly petroleum supply snapshot showed an unexpected increase in domestic gasoline stocks. But geopolitical tensions and rising gasoline demand continued to support prices, traders said.

Light, sweet crude for August delivery fell 34 cents to $74.80 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract slipped 5 cents to settle at $75.14 a barrel Thursday.

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In its weekly inventory report, the U.S. Department of Energy said the country's supply of gasoline unexpectedly rose by 700,000 barrels to 213.1 million barrels. That level is 1.4 percent lower than a year ago.

But the department also said U.S. gasoline consumption over the past four weeks averaged 9.5 million barrels a day, or 1.4 percent more than a year ago, the department said.

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