By V. Phani Kumar, MarketWatch HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Crude-oil futures inched closer to $100 a barrel in electronic trading Wednesday after a surprise decline in U.S. crude inventories and as global markets were pulled higher on hopes for progress on debt talks in Greece. Light, sweet crude for delivery in March CL2H +0.65% rose 59 cents, or 0.6%, to $99.00 a barrel during afternoon hours in East Asia, building on a $1.50 increase recorded Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gain came despite a mild appreciation in the U.S. dollar DXY +0.00% , and after a positive finish on Wall Street overnight. Wednesday in Asia, most regional stock markets were trading higher, led by mainland Chinese and Japanese shares. U.S. stock index futures were also up a little, with Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.26% futures climbing 11 points to 12,842. Read Asian Markets. Despite several days of delays in reaching an agreement by Greek party leaders on the terms of an austerity package required by European leaders to rescue the country, investors held on to hopes that a pact could be reached. Read more about progress seen toward Greek rescue deal. Also supporting energy prices, data released overnight by the American Petroleum Institute showed crude-oil supplies fell 4.5 million barrels in the week to Feb. 3, but gasoline inventories increased by 4.4 million barrels. The data pressured March gasoline futures RB2H +0.24% to slip 0.1% to $2.92 a gallon. Among other energy products, March heating oil prices HO2H +0.14% fell 0.1% to $3.19 a gallon, while natural-gas futures NG12H +0.24% for delivery in the same month rose 0.1% to $2.48 per million British thermal units. Varahabhotla Phani Kumar is a reporter in MarketWatch's Hong Kong bureau.

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