Oil prices remained highly volatile in Asian trade Thursday as strong dollar and US crude inventories offset equity gains in the region.

Light sweet crude for September delivery was seen trading at $75.54 a barrel at 12.00 noon Singapore while Brent crude was at $76.31 a barrel in London.

Analyst's said the black gold is likely to remain volatile in Asia amid investor concerns U.S. economic growth will slow in the second half and stymie demand for crude.

The greenback strengthened by 0.4 percent against a basket of currencies on Thursday, while the Nikkei gained 1 percent.

On Wednesday, oil ended lower after US Energy report showed a smaller-than-expected decline in inventories, but pared some of their losses as the dollar weakened modestly and equities reversed to gains.

Crude for September delivery retreated 35 cents, or 0.5%, to $75.42 a barrel, keeping above $75 a barrel after trading as low as $73.75 earlier in the day.

The Energy Information Administration reported a smaller-than-expected decline for oil inventories in the week ended Aug. 13, in contrast with a trade group's Tuesday report of a massive increase.

The EIA said oil inventories declined by 800,000 barrels, which was initially received as good news after the American Petroleum Institute reported an increase of 5.9 million barrels in inventories for the same week.

In other Nymex trading in September contracts, heating oil fell 0.1 cent to settle at $2.0249 a gallon, while gasoline added 0.8 cent to settle at $1.9612. Natural gas lost 2.8 cents to settle at $4.239 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell 46 cents to settle at $76.47 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange

Energy