NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures fell Thursday as worries about sluggish petroleum demand offset positive economic data from the U.S. and China, the two biggest consumers of oil in the world. U.S. demand for total petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fell in the first half of the year to the lowest level in a decade, a Thursday report by an industry group showed. Inventories of petroleum products stood at the highest level in 11 years, a government report showed Wednesday. August crude futures fell 64 cents, or 1%, to $60.90 a barrel on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. It has tumbled nearly 13% this month. "Oil fundamentals are still weak and despite the pockets of positive figures recently indicating improving economic conditions, doubts still linger over a global economic recovery," said Nimit Khamar, analyst at Sucden Financial Research. "It is clear that the positive optimism is not yet materializing into actual crude demand; this may keep crude prices under pressure," Khamar wrote in a note to clients. Petroleum products delivered to the market, an implied gauge of demand, fell to an average of 18.75 million barrels a day in the first half, the Washington, DC-based American Petroleum Institute said. That's 5.8% lower than the same period a year ago, and nearly 10%, or 2 million barrels a day, lower than the peak reached in 2005. Weak demand has pushed up inventories of petroleum products. Product stockpiles rose to 771.6 million barrels last week, the highest level since September 1998, the Energy Information Administration reported Wednesday. Worries over demand and rising inventories weighed on Thursday's energy trading, as investors shrugged off some positive economic numbers. In the U.S., first-time claims for state unemployment benefits fell in the week ended July 11 fell 522,000 -- the lowest level since early January, the Labor Department reported. Also Thursday, China said its gross domestic product grew at a higher-than-expected 7.9% in the April-June quarter from the year-earlier period, as government-led stimulus measures and strong bank lending spurred domestic consumption and industrial activity. See Economic Report on China GDP. In other energy trading Thursday, August natural gas futures gained 15.8 cents, or 4.8%, to $3.441 per million British thermal units. The EIA Thursday reported U.S. natural gas inventories rose 90 billion cubic feet last week, smaller than some analysts had expected. Some analysts surveyed by energy information provider Platts had projected a buildup as big as 106 billion cubic feet. At 2,886 billion cubic feet, stocks were 589 billion cubic feet higher than last year at this time and 454 billion cubic feet above the five-year average. Also on the Nymex, August reformulated gasoline was nearly flat at $1.7078 a gallon and August heating oil rose 1.23 cents, or 0.8%, to $1.5944 a gallon. The United States Oil Fund (USO 33.44, -0.03, -0.09%) fell 0.5%, and the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG 12.81, +0.55, +4.49%) rose 3.2%.

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