Oil rises above $ 97 after us crude supply drop (AP)

SINGAPORE-oil prices rose to above $ 97 a barrel Thursday in Asia as a report showed U.S. supplies of crude fell more than expected for a second week, suggesting the question is improving.

Landmark oil for August delivery was at 78 cents to $ 97.43 barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude lost 24 cents to settle at $96,65 on Wednesday.

In London, Brent crude rose to $ 114.72 $1,11 cents a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said late Wednesday that crude inventories fell 3.2 million barrels last week, while analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., had expected a drop of 2.5 million barrels.

Inventories of gasoline fell 1.9 million barrels last week while distillates declined 1.6 million barrels, the API said.

Energy information administration of the Department of energy report weekly supply data later Thursday.

Some analysts said falling U.S. crude supplies will likely spark producers to increase production, cutting in additional production capacity and to support prices.

"We expect inventory draws would require OPEC to increase production at the expense of spare capacity," Morgan Stanley said in a report. "We remain bullish on oil, especially in the second half."

Recommended investors buy Goldman Sachs the Brent December 2012 contract as global demand Outpaces production.

"We expect the market will continue to tighten to critical levels by 2012, pushing oil prices substantially higher to curb demand," Goldman said in a report.

Traders are also closely watching that June U.S. jobs data scheduled to be released on Friday.

In other Nymex trading in August contracts, heating oil rose 3 cents to $ 2.99 a gallon, while gasoline gained 2 cents to $ 3.00 a gallon. Natural Gas futures added 1 cent to $4,23 to 1,000 cubic meters.

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