New York crude futures slipped Thursday even as winter storm hit the Southeast and after the government said the amount of natural gas in storage declined last week.

Light sweet crude for January delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 86 cents to close at 59.99 dollars a barrel.

But in London, where traders remained focused on the cold snap, the price of Brent North Sea crude for January delivery rose by 25 cents to end at 59.85 dollars a barrel.

Temperatures throughout the US northeast were forecast to stay well below normal on Thursday, with snow predicted for much of the region. But more moderate weather was seen coming in about a week.

Heating oil dropped by 5.77 cents to 1.7873 dollars a gallon, while gasoline declined by 2.39 cents to 1.6168 dollars a gallon.

The Department of Energy said in its weekly natural gas report that crude oil stocks rose by 900,000 barrels for the week ended Dec. 9 to total 321.2 million barrels, in line with analysts' forecasts.

Gasoline inventories increased 1.8 million barrels to 204.4 million barrels, double market expectations.

But stocks of distillate products fell 100,000 barrels to 130. 5 million barrels, the Energy Department said.

Heating oil reserves in the United States are still 13.4 percent larger than at the same stage last year.

Source: Xinhua