Crude oil futures contract crossed the level of $98 per barrel on Thursday on positive inventories and jobs data. According to the latest numbers given by US Energy Information Administration crude oil inventories declined by 900,000 barrels for the week ending July 1^st, 2011, whereas analysts forecasted the decline of 2.5 million barrels.

Principal at Energy Security Analysis in Wakefield, Mr. Rick Mueller commented, “Even though we’re in a peak demand period, we still only had a draw of about a million barrels overall, that would suggest the market is better supplied than expected.”

Crude oil futures contract for August delivery gained 2.1 percent or $2.02 to $98.67 per barrel on New York Mercantile Stock Exchange. The respective contract touched the day’s high of $96.99 per barrel on Thursday.

Gasoline inventories also dropped by 600,000 barrels while distillate fuel inventories which include diesel declined 200,000 barrels. Analysts projected the decrease of 500,000 barrels for gasoline inventories while distillate fuel inventories were expected to drop by 1.1 million barrels.

Gasoline futures contract for August delivery gained 4.3 percent or $0.13 to $3.13 per gallon. Heating oil futures contract for August delivery surged 4.7 percent to $3.10 per gallon on Thursday.

Natural gas futures contract for August delivery declined 2 percent or $0.08 to $4.13 per million British thermal unit on New York Mercantile Exchange.

Energy Information Administration reported the increase of 95 billion cubic feet in natural gas inventories to 2,575 billion cubic feet which resulted in decline of natural gas prices.