The outages at the BP Forties Pipeline System is supporting oil prices. Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, after U.S. government data showed a larger-than-expected drop in U.S. stockpiles. Light, sweet crude for February delivery rose 36 cents, or 0.6%, to $57.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent, the global benchmark, gained 34 cents, or 0.5%, to $64.14 a barrel. On Wednesday, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that crude stockpiles fell by 6.5 million barrels in the week ended Dec. 15, exceeding both analyst expectations and estimates from the American Petroleum Institute released Tuesday. “Investor sentiment was boosted by the large drop in crude stocks and an upturn in demand,” said analysts at Capital Economics. Analysts said the decline was largely due to refiners ramping up operations last week, taking crude out of storage and churning it into oil products. Gasoline stockpiles rose by 1.2 […]