Oil slips further on demand concerns

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FE Team | Published: May 06, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

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SINGAPORE, May 5 (Commodity Online): World oil prices extended losses in Asian trade Thursday mainly on demand concerns in the US, world's largest oil consumer. Light sweet crude for June delivery was seen trading at $108.64 a barrel at 12.00 noon Singapore time while Brent crude was at $ 120.76 a barrel in London. Analysts also attributed oil's decline to concerns over Chinese data, that China may further tighten monetary policy to fight inflation. They said drop in gasoline consumption in the US added to signs of slowing growth in the world's largest economy that is also cut down oil demand in the world's biggest crude consumer. US Energy Department Wednesday said crude stockpiles climbed to the highest since October and gasoline consumption fell to a four- week low. Weekly US crude stockpiles rose to 366.5 million barrels and storage inventories rose by 3.42 million barrels last week. However, gasoline stockpiles, meanwhile, fell for an 11th straight week, down 1.05 million barrels, bringing total inventories to the lowest level since June 2009. Futures dropped as much as 0.7 per cent Wednesday. It dropped $1.81, or 1.6 per cent, to $109.24, the lowest since April 19. Brent contract fell $1.26, or 1 per cent, to $121.19, the lowest settlement since April 12.