World oil prices dropped slightly Wednesday even though U.S. crude inventories unexpectedly fell last week.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in May, fell 57 cents to close at 61.77 dollars a barrel.

On London's ICE Futures exchange, the price of Brent North Sea crude for May delivery eased 38 cents to 61.75 dollars a barrel.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, the heating oil dipped 2. 71 cents to close at 1.7451 dollars a gallon as gasoline futures fell 10.3 cents to settle at 1.7365 dollars per gallon. Natural gas futures gained 8.5 cents to finish at 6.953 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet.

The Department of Energy said Wednesday that U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fall unexpectedly in the week ended March 17 while supplies of gasoline and other refined products also declined.

Data showed that the nation's commercial crude oil inventories dropped 1.3 million barrels last week to total 338.6 million. Before the report was released, analysts were predicting a rise of 2.8 million barrels.

It was the first weekly drop in commercial crude oil reserves since early February. Even with the decrease, the stockpiles last week were nearly 9 percent above the levels a year ago.

Meanwhile, gasoline supplies fell by 2.3 million barrels last week to 221.6 million. The fall was deeper than the decline of one million barrels that analysts had been expecting.

Stockpiles of distillates, including heating oil and diesel fuel, declined by 800,000 barrels to 126.7 million, still 15 percent above the year-ago level. The drop was less than the two- million-barrel plunge that analysts had forecast.

Source: Xinhua