Oil prices rose on Thursday as the dollar lost some ground against the euro and other foreign currencies. At midday benchmark crude for December delivery added 33 cents at $82.27 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Gas pump prices are virtually unchanged from Wednesday at a national average of $2.808 for a gallon of regular, according to AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. That's 2.3 cents below a week ago and 12.5 cents higher than a year ago.
The price of crude oil and retail gasoline tend to move in tandem. Both have been listless for the past week, with oil prices drifting between about $80 and $83 a barrel. Most analysts think it's because traders and investors are in wait-and-see mode. "Investors await next week's bonanza: Fed meeting and midterm elections," said Addison Armstrong, senior director of market research at Tradition Energy.
"Oil is slightly higher, with the dollar trading lower and in the wake of yesterday's bearish inventory report," Armstrong said. "Speculation over the size and possible impact of the further quantitative easing (by the Fed) next week pushed the dollar lower."
Oil and other commodities priced in dollars become more affordable for buyers with foreign currencies as the dollar weakens.
On Wednesday the Energy Department said U.S. crude oil inventories expanded by 5 million barrels, considerably more than the 1.5 million many analysts expected. Supplies grew as more oil imports flowed into the country. Analyst Stephen Schork says it's the largest build for the period since 1993 and imports are at their highest point in two months.
The Energy Information Administration on Thursday said that natural gas supplies in the U.S. grew by 71 billion cubic feet, about what analysts expected, according the Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Co. Natural gas inventories are about the same as they were a year ago and 9.1 percent above the five-year average.
