Energy futures are trading mostly flat at the New York Mercantile Exchange midday Wednesday after two straight days of significant declines.
West Texas crude for September delivery was recently losing 6 cents at $119.11 a barrel, and Brent was sliding 5 cents at $117.65. Reformulated gasoline was up a penny at $2.97 a gallon, and heating oil was losing 2 cents at $3.26 a gallon.
Near-term natural gas was recently down 2 cents at $8.71 per million British thermal units.
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The Energy Information Administration released new petroleum inventory figures for the first week of August that were slightly more bearish than analysts had forecasted. Total U.S. crude stores rose 1.7 million barrels during the week; Reuters had estimated a 300,000-barrel gain in crude stock.
Meanwhile, energy stocks are largely moving to the upside in Wednesday's trading session.
BP (BP) is up 1.3% at $61.04,
ConocoPhillips (COP) is adding 1.2% at $80.79,
Royal Dutch Shell (RDS.A) is 0.7% higher at $69.20, and
Exxon Mobil (XOM) is edging down 0.6% at $77.86.
The
U.S. Oil Fund (USO), an exchange-traded fund that closely tracks the performance of WTI crude futures contracts on the Nymex, was recently unchanged at $95.59.
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