Oil prices dropped slightly Thursday as the market reacted to a weekly U.S. report that showed a climb in crude oil stocks but a larger-than-expected drop in product inventories.

Light sweet crude for December delivery fell 11 cents to $58.60 a barrel in midmorning Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s weekly report Wednesday, U.S. crude oil inventories rose by 2 million barrels to 334.3 million barrels in the last week.

That was largely due to crude imports bouncing back up by 599,000 barrels per day from the previous week, when imports dropped off significantly.

Inventories of distillates, which include heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 2.7 million barrels to 141.3 million barrels. Gasoline inventories fell by 2.8 million barrels to 204.6 million barrels. Furthermore, the EIA said demand for these products has recently accelerated.

The drops in product inventories were larger than anticipated, but the market wasn’t too rattled, given that the report indicated that refiners are boosting production and fuel demand is still going strong.

In other Nymex trading, heating oil futures fell marginally to $1.6510 a gallon. Gasoline futures rose 0.12 cent to $1.4642 a gallon and natural gas futures were up 8.3 cents to $7.795 per 1,000 cubic feet.

- AP