Facing expectations of declining demand for crude due to sluggish economic growth, oil prices slipped further for the third successive time. New York's main oil contract slipped more than US$15 post Monday. Its light sweet crude for August delivery, dropped US$5.31 to close at US$129.29 a barrel. Also, Brent North Sea oil for September declined US$5.12 to fix at US$131.07 while the Brent August contract expired Wednesday down US$2.56 at US$136.19.
The third consecutive decline comes after the oil rice escalated to record US$147 last Friday and this trend spells a concern health of economies worldwide for a short term.
This Wednesday's decline in oil price was certainly driven by an uncalled for weekly rise in US oil and petrol inventories, as per a senior analyst with a global bank.
US crude inventories rose 3.0 mln barrels in the week ending July 11, confounding market expectations for a decline of 2.2 mln barrels.
Another factor significantly impacting the crude prices is the advances in Middle East, in particular the US-Iran stand off. Iran is the world's fourth-biggest producer of crude oil, and tensions over its nuclear program pushed prices to record highs last week.
19-Jul-08 
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