Price is up

Crude oil prices dropped after Iran said it was releasing 15 British sailors they had been holding captive. Many felt relieved that there was no block on oil exports. The price drop was small holding crude at $64 a barrel as gasoline prices surge more than 4 percent. U.S. government said that nation's gasoline inventories declined for the eighth straight week and that demand is still strong."There's a lot of inherent strength in the market," said Mike Fitzpatrick, vice president for energy risk management at Fimat USA. Gasoline is now $2.1054 a gallon, which has risen than 30 percent since the beginning of the year. "We'll probably maintain pump prices at the recent highs," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch & Associates in Galena, Ill. Accroding the AAA, U.S. prices have surged an average of $2.70 a gallon up from $2.48 a month ago. Over the last four weeks, gasoline demand has averaged nearly 9.3 million barrels per day, the EIA said, which is 1.7 percent above the same period last year. The U.S. Energy Department said it is passing on an initial bid it received to buy as many as 4 million barrels for the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The department said the bid was too high, and that it would solicit more bids later this month.