Oil prices hover around record highs

World oil prices hovered close to record highs on Thursday as U.S. gasoline demand rose to an all- time high.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in August, fall 5 cents to close at 75.14 dollars per barrel, after it surged to record highs Wednesday, amid fears on the tensions caused by the missile test-firing by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

In London, Brent North Sea crude for August delivery rose 10 cents to close at 74.08 dollars per barrel in electronic trading.

The U.S. Department of Energy reported Wednesday that gasoline reserves went up 700,000 barrels to 213.1 million last week. Analysts had predicted a drop of 2.0 million barrels.

U.S. commercial crude oil inventories fell 2.4 million barrels to 341.3 million over the week ended June 30. Analysts had forecast a decline of just 650,000 barrels. Meanwhile, demand for gasoline rose 1.1 percent from the prior week, to 9.645 million barrels per day, an all-time high.

U.S. refineries operated at 93.1 percent capacity in the past week, down slightly from 93.8 percent in the previous week.

Source: Xinhua