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SINGAPORE: World oil prices eased slightly but remained near recent
record highs in Asia on Friday after data showed a sharp fall in
United States crude stocks last week, dealers said.
New York’s main futures contract, light sweet
crude for delivery in November, was eight cents lower at $83.00 a
barrel in afternoon trade.
The contract had surged $1.78 to $83.08 in late
trades on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) Thursday.
Brent North Sea crude for November delivery was
16 cents lower at $79.99 a barrel.
Late last month, Brent oil hit a record high of
$81.05 a barrel, while New York crude struck an all-time peak of
$84.10 in September.
“It seems to have steadied at those levels
around which NYMEX closed last night,” said David Moore, a
commodities strategist with Commonwealth Bank of Australia in
Sydney.
He noted an absence of fresh factors to move the
market since the US Department of Energy (DoE) issued its weekly
report on Thursday.
DoE said American crude oil reserves slumped by
1.7 million barrels in the week ending October 5.
That confounded analysts’ consensus forecast
for a gain of 1.0 million barrels.
US distillates, which include heating fuel, slid
by 600,000 barrels, broadly in line with market expectations for a
775,000-barrel drop.
Traders are watching distillate levels ahead of
the approaching North American winter season.
Gasoline reserves gained 1.7 million barrels
last week but remain at historically low levels, analysts said.
Société Genérale researchers said in a report
that the unexpected crude draw down was mainly due to lower imports.
“Looking at the bigger picture they [the US
figures] do raise a lot of concerns about what’s happening with
the overall market,” said Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn.
He added: “Gasoline inventories are near
historic lows, heating oil supplies are well below normal and crude
supplies are dwindling.”
Also on Thursday, the International Energy
Agency (IEA), the developed world’s energy watchdog, held steady
its forecasts for oil demand for this year and next.
The IEA predicted average oil demand to be 85.9
million barrels per day in 2007 and 88 million bpd in 2008.
--AFP
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