Oil prices slide below $124 on falling fuel demand, OPEC weekly oil prices drop further

Oil prices slide below 124 USD on falling fuel demand

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-26 05:24:59

NEW YORK, July 25 (Xinhua) --

Crude oil resumed its slide and settled below 124 U.S. dollars Friday on falling fuel demand caused by a slow economy and supply increase from the OPEC countries.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery dropped 2.23 dollars to settle at 123.26 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched 122.50 dollars a barrel during the trading session, the lowest intraday price since June 5. Price has tumbled more than 24 dollars since the all-time peak of 147.27 dollars a barrel was achieved on July 11.

The U.S. Energy Department's report this week showed that the U.S. domestic fuel demand dropped to a lowest point since January 2007 with average 19.9 million barrels a day, signaling that the weak economy and high energy prices have curbed demand.

The OPEC will produce 32.9 million barrels a day in July, 200,000 barrels up from June, according to the preliminary estimates from an oil industry consultancy Petro Logistics Ltd.

The dollar strengthened against the euro on Friday also helped to bring down the crude oil price.

In London, Brent crude for September delivery fell 1.92 dollars to settle at 124.52 dollars a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

OPEC weekly oil prices drop further

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-22 05:28:33

VIENNA, July 21 (Xinhua) --

The weekly average oil prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) dropped further to 133.97 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, said the Vienna-based cartel Monday.

The weekly prices hit a record high of 138.31 dollars on the first week of July and then dropped 4.34 dollars in the following two weeks.

The daily prices last Monday were 139.81 dollars. It then kept falling in the following four consecutive trading days, sliding 11.88 dollars to 127.93 dollars Friday.

However, the intensified geopolitical crisis would still be the latent booster for the oil prices, according to experts.

OPEC's second largest oil producer Iran was facing the possible fourth sanctions from the UN Security Council against its disputed nuclear program, after the talk of Iran and the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain on the Geneva meeting on Saturday.

Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili reiterated that the aim of its nuclear program was peaceful and Iran would not discuss the request of freezing its sensitive atomic facilities.

The six major powers therefore gave Iran two weeks to answer calls of controlling its nuclear activities or facing tougher sanctions, which deepen the worries of the market on Iran's stable oil output.

Editor: Mu Xuequan

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