Oil prices rise, but consumption still slumping; more drivers expected for Thanksgiving

Oil rises on mixed news about consumer demand

NEW YORK — Oil prices wavered Wednesday as the government said American petroleum demand continued to tumble, while AAA said it expects more drivers to hit the road during Thanksgiving weekend.

Benchmark crude for December delivery added 61 cents at $79.75 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for December delivery rose 78 cents to $79.75 on the ICE Futures exchange.

AAA said that 33.2 million people would get in their cars and travel at least 50 miles over the Thanksgiving weekend, next Wednesday through Sunday. That’s an increase of 2.1 percent from 2008, even though a gallon of gas is 56 cents more expensive than the same time last year.

The auto club, which based its report on a telephone survey, said the increase was a sign that consumers are more confident in the economy.

Meanwhile, the Energy Information Administration reported that the country’s stockpile of crude oil fell by 900,000 barrels last week. But the drop was hardly a sign of a recovering economy. American petroleum consumption has fallen to the lowest level since July 17, and oil companies are importing much less oil as they scale back their refining operations.

Some analysts expect weak global economic growth to keep commodities like oil from surging much higher. Global growth will likely average 2.5 percent a year during the next three years, about half the rate between 2002 and 2007, said Stephen Roach, Asia Chairman for Morgan Stanley.

“I don’t see commodities repeating the boom-like surges,” Roach said in Singapore.

At the pump, retail gas prices increased less than a penny to $2.632 a gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded is 6.8 cents more expensive than last month and 56.4 cents more expensive than the same time last year.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil rose 1.15 cents to $2.07 a gallon. Gasoline for December delivery gained 2.72 cents to $2.0321 a gallon. Natural gas for December delivery gave up 18.4 cents to $4.346 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Associated Press writers Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, Hungary and Alex Kennedy in Singapore contributed to this report.