ET:Oil hovers above $88 after US crude supplies drop
SINGAPORE: Oil prices hovered above $88 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a report showed US crude supplies unexpectedly fell last week, suggesting demand could be improving.
Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 7 cents at $88.27 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.96 to settle at $88.34 in New York on Tuesday.
Brent crude for December delivery was up 15 cents at $111.30 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
The American Petroleum Institute said late Tuesday that crude inventories fell 3.1 million barrels last week while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had predicted an increase of 1.8 million barrels.
