September Brent Futures Close @ $76.76 - US Gasoline Inventories 2.8 MB Below Projections - CNN

NEW YORK (AP) - Gasoline prices extended their slide at the pump Wednesday, while oil and gasoline futures gained on a surprise decline in gas inventories.

In its weekly report, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said gasoline inventories dropped by 2.3 million barrels last week, countering analyst predictions of a 560,000-barrel increase. 'They weren't expecting that whatsoever,' said Jack Hunter, an energy trader at FC Stone Group, in Kansas City.

In response, August gasoline rose 9.46 cents to settle at $2.1953 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Light, sweet crude for August delivery gained $1.03 to settle at $75.05 a barrel on the Nymex, a front-month contract's first close over $75 since Aug. 9. Prices also got a boost after the American Petroleum Institute said a record 388 million gallons of gasoline on average every day was consumed during the first half of the year, up 1.5 percent from last year, despite higher prices.

EDIT

Brent crude futures for September rose $1.23 to settle at $76.76 on London's ICE Futures exchange.

EDIT

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/newstex/AFX-0013-18232152.htm

How can you get off by 2.8 million barrels in a week? Did 50 million people just go out for a joy-ride last week without warning?

so maybe a bunch of europeans have decided that hummers are cool and are using 'our' gas now.