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Oil prices remained near record levels Friday after a drop in U.S inventories and the weaker dollar had pushed prices above $115 a barrel.

Light sweet crude for May delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) settled at $114.86 yesterday after rallying to an all-time peak of $115.54. London Brent settled 23 cents lower at $112.43, off the record $113.38 set earlier.

Investors continued to purchase oil contracts as a hedge against the weakening dollar , betting that the rise in commodity prices would offset the decline in the dollar.

Price levels were also supported by the weekly Energy Information Administration (EIA) inventory report, which showed that gasoline stocks had fallen by 5.5 million barrels as the U.S heads into its peak summer driving season. Stocks of crude oil dropped by 7.3 million barrels during the same period.

	11-Apr	+/-	04-Apr
Crude	1,659,173	-7,364	1,666,537
Gasoline	215,751	-5,517	221,268
Kerosene	39,701	1,191	38,510
Distillate Fuel Oil	106,079	52	106,027
Residual Fuel Oil	38,339	-919	39,258

Crude oil was little changed Friday with WTI crude trading at $115.13 at 07:37 GMT, up 27 cents on the previous day's settlement price. Brent crude was also trading slightly higher at $112.76, 34 cents higher than yesterday's closing price.