Crude oil future rose modestly Tuesday as brokers expected that US inventories had declined for last week.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for August delivery rose 14 cents to end at 57.46 dollars a barrel. Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the September Brent crude-oil futures contract climbed 37 cents to finish at 57.36 dollars per barrel.

On Tuesday, a survey by Bloomberg showed that most analysts said US oil stockpiles probably fell by about 3.45 million barrels and gasoline inventories probably dropped by 1.5 million barrels for last week. While declines in crude stocks were normal in summer, as demand for gasoline and other fuels increased in the US, brokers were still worried about the shortfall of supplies.

Hurricane Emily was forecasted to reach Mexico's northeast coast tomorrow, shutting production from the southern Gulf and caused some US producers to evacuate platforms and rigs as a precaution.

US Department of Energy would release the latest data on energy inventories tomorrow.

Source: Xinhua