Crude oil futures fell Wednesday in Asia, extending declines from the previous session as refinery worries faded and OPEC suggested it sees no need to increase oil production.

Light, sweet crude for October delivery fell 12 cents to $71.61 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange midmorning in Singapore. The contract dropped 24 cents to $71.73 a barrel Tuesday in the U.S.

Nymex gasoline futures rebounded 0.46 cent to $2.0200 per gallon in electronic trading after dropping 2.39 cents in the day session.

Gasoline futures have been a main driver of oil prices in recent days. A number of refinery outages rekindled concerns about fuel supplies just as inventory reports have been indicating gasoline demand has remained strong late into the U.S. driving season.

But several of those refinery problems, including a reported outage at Citgo Petroleum Corp.'s refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas, are apparently being resolved.

A crude distillation unit at Valero Energy Corp.'s refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, has also been restarted, although at a lower rate after down time of about a week. And Dow Jones Newswires reported that the processing units at a 330,000 barrel per day Chevron Corp. refinery in Mississippi have returned to service.

Oil prices alternated between gains and losses Tuesday after Abdalla Salem el-Badri, secretary general of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, told Dow Jones the oil market is well supplied. Many analysts agree, pointing out that crude oil inventories are at record levels.

In the week covered by the last inventory report from the U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, crude oil stocks were more than 20 million barrels higher than the average for the same week in the previous five years.

Traders are now looking ahead to this week's inventory report due later Wednesday. Gasoline supplies are expected to have fallen 1.8 million barrels in the week ended Aug. 24, according to the average estimates of analysts surveyed by Dow Jones.

Crude oil inventories are expected to have fallen 800,000 barrels, and distillate stocks, which include diesel and heating oil, are forecast to have built 600,000 barrels. Refinery utilization rates are forecast to have remained unchanged at 91.6 percent.

In London, October Brent crude rose 2 cents to $70.57 a barrel on the ICE futures exchange in London.

Heating oil futures on Nymex rose 0.15 cent to $1.9978 a gallon. Natural gas prices rose 13.2 cents to $5.725 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Businessweek