LONDON, Aug 8: World oil prices were mixed on Wednesday after the US government revealed the latest weekly snapshot of American energy inventories. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for September delivery dropped by 29 cents to $71.51 per barrel.New York’s main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, climbed 18 cents to $72.60 per barrel.

The US Department of Energy said that crude inventories fell by 4.1 million barrels to 340.4 million barrels during the week ended August 3. The decline was higher than analyst estimates of a drop of 2.75 million.

The DoE added that stockpiles of gasoline, or petrol, fell by 1.7 million barrels to 203 million last week. Analysts had forecast a rise of 775,000 barrels.

Inventories of distillates, which comprise diesel and heating fuel, rose by 1.0 million barrels to 127.5 million barrels, below expectations of an increase of 1.78 million.

Refinery output fell to 91.3 per cent of full capacity, compared with expectations that it had remained at 93.6 per cent.

World oil prices had ended higher on Tuesday, a day after sliding by around 3.5 dollars on forecasts of weaker energy demand owing to economic troubles affecting the United States. —AFP