Crude Oil Trades Little Changed Before U.S. Inventory Report

By Grant Smith

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil traded little changed before a weekly U.S. government report on oil stockpiles, forecast to show that crude supplies expanded in the world's largest energy user.

Inventories of crude oil probably rose 1 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 15 from 296.5 million the previous week, according to a Bloomberg survey. Oil gave up earlier gains amid strengthening in the dollar, which yesterday touched its highest in six months, limiting the hedging appeal of commodities.

``We would not want to be long going into the numbers,'' said Edward Meir, an analyst at MF Global Ltd. in Connecticut. ``A set of bearish or in-line numbers could rapidly roll back much of yesterday's gains.''

Crude oil for September delivery was at $114.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 8:51 a.m. London time, 37 cents higher, after gaining as much as 83 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $115.36 a barrel.

Yesterday, futures gained $1.66, or 1.5 percent, to settle at $114.53 a barrel. The September oil contract expires at the close of Nymex trading today.

The Energy Department is scheduled to release its report at 10:35 a.m. in Washington. U.S. supplies of gasoline probably fell a fourth week, by 3 million barrels last week from 202.8 million barrels the previous week, according to the median of 13 responses in a Bloomberg News survey of analysts.

The dollar was at $1.4753 against the euro, compared with $1.4776 yesterday, when it touched $1.4631, the strongest level since Feb. 20.

To contact the reporter on this story: Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net