After Wednesday's drop of one dollar, oil prices continue to slide in response to U.S. government data showing that crude oil stockpiles are above average. Light sweet crude for September delivery dipped to US$71.38 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in Asian midmorning trading.
USA's commercial crude oil inventories fell 1.6 million barrels in the week ending Aug. 11, but remain well above the average range for this time of year at 331 million barrels. In other Nymex trading, gasoline futures dropped 1.81 cents to US$1.9600 a gallon and natural gas futures fell marginally to US$6.760 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Oil prices have witnessed a steady fall this week as supply fears subsided after a cease-fire in Lebanon and BP PLC resumed partial production at its Prudhoe Bay oil field in the U.S. state of Alaska.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has cut oil demand forecast for 2006 by 80,000 bpd from its previous monthly report. It now expects demand growth of 1.3 million bpd on average at 84.5 million bpd.
17-Aug-06 
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