Oil rose in New York before an Energy Department report that may show crude inventories in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer, declined for a seventh week. Crude inventories may have shrunk on the shutdown of the Trans Alaska pipeline and as a premium for Brent oil from the North Sea drew cargoes to Europe, according to a Bloomberg News survey before the government report tomorrow. Oil also gained as investors bought contracts against a weakening dollar. The February contract climbed as much as 52 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $91.90 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $91.78 at 2:46 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, it declined 16 cents to settle at $91.38, the lowest since Jan. 11. Prices have gained 16 percent in the past year. February futures expire tomorrow. The more actively traded March contract was at $92.79 a barrel, up 48 cents. Brent crude for March settlement gained 30 cents, or 0.3 percent, to $98.10 a barrel on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London. U.S. crude inventories probably dropped 1 million barrels, or 0.3 percent, in the seven days ended Jan. 14 from 333.1 million a week earlier, according to the median of 15 analyst estimates. To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Schmollinger in Singapore at christian.s@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jane, Ching Shen Lee at jalee@bloomberg.net

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