Oil and gas futures fell on Wednesday after a governmental announcement displayed an unforeseen slump in refinery action and big declines in oil and gasoline stocks. Oil and gas futures jumped at once after the report’s release, and then traded volatile for the whole day.

For next monthe delivery, light, sweet crude delivery descended 27 cents to USD 72.15 per barrel on the NYMEX, and the gasoline came down 0.65 cent to USD 1.9377 each gallon.

After the report was released, oil mounted above USD 73 a barrel and gasoline arose by over 2 cents.

In London, September Brent crude knock down 81 cents to USD 70.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

In other NYMEX trading, natural gas futures arose 1.9 cents to USD 6.22 per 1,000 cubic feet, and heating oil futures ascended 0.27 cent to USD 1.9668 a gallon.

On the other hand, imports of crude descended 167,000 barrels per day to an average of 10 million barrels last week, whereas gasoline imports sprang up 172,000 barrels to an average of 1.4 million barrels a day.

At the pump, gas prices fell a cent during the night to a national average of USD 2.821 per gallon.