Oil hit a new record high above $78 on Wednesday after a larger-than-expected drop in crude inventories in the United States.
The prices jumped after the government reported a steep drop in crude inventories last week as refinery utilization surged.
Light, sweet crude for September delivery rose 55 cents to $78.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That surpasses the previous record of $78.40, set in July 2006.
September gasoline futures fell a cent to $2.0959 a gallon on the Nymex. Gasoline inventories rose last week.
Nymex heating oil futures fell by 1.12 cents to $2.112 a gallon while natural gas futures gained 27.9 cents to $6.47 per 1,000 cubic feet.
In London, September Brent crude fell 15 cents to $76.90 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.
In its weekly report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said oil inventories fell by 6.5 million barrels in the week ended July 27, far more than the 690,000-barrel decline analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires, on average, had expected.
Refinery utilization jumped by 1.9 percentage points to 93.6 percent of capacity, more than double the expected increase of 0.7 percentage points.
Gasoline inventories rose by 600,000 barrels, the EIA said. Analysts had expected an increase of 1.1 million barrels. Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 2.8 million barrels. Analysts had expected distillate inventories to rise by 1.4 million barrels.
Oil 
