Oil Prices Back on the Rise

New York, NY, Dec. 6, 2011 -- Oil prices rose to near $102 a barrel Wednesday in Asia.

Benchmark crude for January delivery was up 49 cents to $101.77 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 29 cents to settle at $101.28 on Tuesday.

In London, Brent crude was up 28 cents at $111.09 on the ICE futures exchange.

The American Petroleum Institute said Tuesday that crude inventories fell 5.0 million barrels last week while analysts had predicted a drop of 1.3 million barrels.