LONDON, 6 October 2005 — Oil prices fell yesterday as cooler demand for gasoline offset a drop in US crude inventories in the wake of supply disruptions caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, analysts said.
New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, lost ten cents to $63.80 per barrel in early deals. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell 38 cents to $60.84 per barrel. US reserves of crude oil, petrol and heating oil all fell over the past week as supply bottlenecks lingered from Katrina and Rita, the government said.
The Department of Energy said crude stocks were down 300,000 barrels at 305.4 million barrels in the week to Sept. 30. Gasoline (petrol) inventories dropped 4.3 million barrels to total 195.5 million, the DoE said.
Distillate supplies used for diesel and heating oil dropped 5.6 million barrels to 128 million, it said.