Oil prices dip before US energy data

LONDON  - Oil prices eased on Wednesday, reversing earlier gains and a sharp spike the day before, as the market awaited the latest weekly government report on the health of American energy inventories.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, fell 13 cents to 114.40 dollars a barrel after briefly rising above 115 dollars earlier on Wednesday.

London’s Brent North Sea crude for October delivery shed 14 cents to 113.13 dollars a barrel.

“Later Wednesday market participants will pay close attention to the weekly US fuel inventories report” from the US government, noted Nimit Khamar, an energy analyst at the Sucden brokerage in London.

Crude prices had shot up a week ago after the US Department of Energy reported US gasoline reserves surprisingly fell by as much as 6.4 million barrels in the week ended August 8.