On news that the US has maintained more crude supplies than the demand, the price of crude made a slight progress and closed above $72 per barrel. This happened after it saw a steep decline the previous day.

For October, the delivery price was up slightly and closed at 36 cents up at $72.26 a barrel at Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On the previous day it had lost $2.78 to settle at $71.92.

The inventories of crude went up by 4.7 million barrels, said the American Petroleum Institute. Some other forecasts had said that the level will be around 1.9 million barrels. A report by the American Institute also says that the inventories of gasoline and distillates fell.

The price of oil had been hovering around $70 per barrel almost all time during the last year. This happened due to the recessionary forces. And while the price this year has done better, the recovery has been sluggish as is evident from the current situation.

The other trading data shows that the price of heating oil went up 1.33 cents to $2.005 a gallon.