Crude-oil prices perked up after the release of government data that reported dwindling inventories of oil and gasoline last week amid rising demand and falling imports. Light sweet crude for August delivery spiked to US$72.20 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude futures on the ICE Futures exchange in London climbed to US$71.53 a barrel, as commercial inventories of crude oil declined last week by 3.4 million barrels to 343.7 million barrels, and gasoline supplies shrank by 1 million barrels to 212.4 million barrels.
Recent months have seen energy prices escalate on the back of a plethora of causes: strong global demand, specially from China, violence in Nigeria, unrest in Iraq and Iran's diplomatic showdown with the West over its nuclear program.
Gasoline futures have risen by roughly 20 cents a gallon over the past week partially because of the closure of a key shipping channel along the U.S. Gulf Coast that minimally disrupted crude-oil supplies to nearby oil refineries.
The channel has been off limits due to the spread of oil from a spill last week at a Citgo Petroleum Corp. refinery in Lake Charles, and could remain closed till the cleanup procedure is complete in about a week.
This shipping snag preceeds the July 4 holiday in the U.S., when gasoline demand typically peaks
29-Jun-06 
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