Oil prices fall over good supply, flat demand

Oil prices eased, with New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in February down 48 cents to US$92.64 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for February shedding 59 cents to US$111.88.

Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos., said it expects data from the U.S. Energy Information Agency and the American Petroleum Institute to show a 1 million barrel draw for the week ending Dec. 28. Still, the U.S. market is “well-supplied,” Platts said, citing analysts.

U.S. supplies, at 371 million barrels for the week ending Dec. 21, are 15.6-percent higher than the five-year average, Platts said, citing EIA data. For the same week, data showed U.S. production at nearly 7 million barrels per day, the highest since December 1993.

Carl Larry of Oil Outlooks and Opinions said production levels were “at new high” and noted that “the room for demand to expand is not even close to what we had just a few short years ago before the global recession.”

Brent crude, used to price various kinds of international oil, fell 30 cents to US$112.17 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange:

— Wholesale gasoline fell 0.3 cents to US$2.7925 a gallon.

— Heating oil fell marginally to US$3.041 a gallon.

— Natural gas fell 3.5 cents to US$3.198 per 1,000 cubic feet.

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