Crude oil futures were higher during mid-morning trade in Asia Thursday amid a bullish report on last week’s US crude inventory, while lackluster trade activity amid year-end holidays could limit price volatility, analysts said. At 10:30 am Singapore time (0230 GMT), the front-month March ICE Brent crude futures rose 26 cents/b (0.39%) from Tuesday’s settle to $66.26/b, while the NYMEX February light sweet crude contract was 25 cents/b (0.41%) higher at $61.31/b. According to analysts reports quoting data released by the American Petroleum Institute released Tuesday, US crude inventories for the week ended December 27 fell 7.8 million barrels. Analysts surveyed Monday by S&P Global Platts were looking for US crude stocks to have declined 3.1 million barrels last week. US gasoline inventories were down 776,000 barrels last week, analysts quoting the […]