World oil prices surged Wednesday after U.S. government data showed shrinking inventories of oil and gasoline.

Light sweet crude for August delivery rose 68 cents to 72.20 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery rose 43 cents to 71.41 dollars per barrel.

US reserves of gasoline fell by 1 million barrels to 212.4 million over the week ended June 23, the Department of Energy said Wednesday in its weekly market update.

That overturned analysts' consensus forecasts of a rise of 450, 000 barrels.

Gasoline futures were flat Wednesday at 2.20 dollars a gallon, but they had risen by roughly 20 cents a gallon over the past week in part because of the closure of a key shipping channel along the U.S. Gulf Coast that minimally disrupted crude-oil supplies to nearby oil refineries.

On Tuesday, Iran, OPEC's no. 2 oil producer, said the country does not need negotiation with the United States over its nuclear program.

A package drawn up by the five permanent UN Security Council members, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany promises Iran incentives and multilateral talks if it agrees temporarily to halt uranium enrichment.

Iran has not formally responded to the June 6 offer.

Source: Xinhua