|
SINGAPORE: Oil prices fell $4 in Asian trade Friday,
after a “bloodbath” on world equity markets, with traders
increasingly convinced a global economic slowdown will hurt energy
demand, dealers said.
Brent North Sea crude sank below
the $80-mark for the first time in about a year.
Dealers said economic fears
outweighed news that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) will hold an emergency meeting next month to
discuss the global crisis and its impact on energy demand.
In afternoon trade New York’s
main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, plunged
$4.08 to $82.51 after dropping $2.36 to 86.59 on Thursday at the New
York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent North Sea crude for
November delivery fell $3.58 to $79.08 after settling $1.70 lower at
82.66 on Thursday in London.
The contract first rose through
the $80-level in late September 2007.
“In stock markets around the
region we are really having a bloodbath and, correspondingly, oil
spirals [down] along with it,” said Victor Shum, of international
energy consultancy Purvin and Gertz in Singapore.
The Tokyo bourse suffered its
biggest loss in more than two decades. Some other markets fell about
7 percent or 8 percent over fears that authorities are unable to
contain the global financial crisis.
The oil market has “a growing
sense of inevitability” that the world is entering an extended
economic slowdown which would hurt demand for energy, Shum said.
OPEC said it would hold an
emergency meeting in Vienna on November 18 to discuss “the global
financial crisis, the world economic situation and the impacts on
the oil market.”
“The organization is concerned
about the deteriorating economic conditions,” said a statement
from OPEC, whose 12-member nations pump around 40 percent of world
oil supplies.
OPEC reiterated its determination
“to ensure that oil market fundamentals are kept in balance and
market stability is maintained.”
Some oil analysts said that if
prices continue to fall OPEC could slash output.
“Market participants are still
very much concerned that demand will continue to dwindle as global
economies continue to slow sharply,” said Sucden analyst Nimit
Khamar in London.
--AFP
|
