Crude oil futures rose after a U.S. government report showed an unexpected drop in inventories. Supplies fell 138,000 barrels to 350.6 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 13, the Energy Department said today in a weekly report. Inventories were forecast to increase by 3.2 million barrels, according to the median of analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Crude oil for March delivery rose $2.27, or 6.6 percent, to $36.89 a barrel at 11:07 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Oil traded at $35.36 a barrel before the release of the report at 11 a.m. in Washington. Oil also climbed as the euro strengthened against the U.S. currency on speculation that Europe will take steps to address the financial crisis. Investors purchased commodities as a store of value. “The weaker dollar tends to send people looking for an inflation hedge and at least theoretically will kick up demand overseas because oil will be cheaper for them,” said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates, a Galena, Illinois, energy consultant. “A major reason prices were knocked down into the $30s was the strength of the dollar.” President Barack Obama this week signed into law a $787 billion economic stimulus package and unveiled a plan to help Americans keep their homes by cutting mortgage payments and encouraging loan revisions. The U.S. consumed 24 percent of the world’s oil in 2007, according to figures compiled by BP Plc. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut oil production 3.5 percent in January, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Producers with output quotas, all members except Iraq, pumped 26.2 million barrels a day, 1.355 million more than their target of 24.845 million barrels a day.

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