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Crude oil drops to $76

25 November 2009 07:42 (UTC +04:00)

Baku- APA-Economics. Crude oil was little changed near $76 a barrel in New York on speculation weaker growth in the U.S., the worldâ€™s largest energy consumer, may limit demand.

Oil declined to a five-week low yesterday after the Commerce Department said the U.S. economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter, down from a prior estimate of 3.5 percent. The Energy Department will probably report today that crude supplies climbed 1.5 million barrels last week, a Bloomberg News survey showed.

Crude oil for January delivery was at $76.16 a barrel, up 14 cents, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2 p.m. in Singapore. Yesterday, the contract fell $1.54, or 2 percent, to $76.02 a barrel, the lowest settlement since Oct. 14. Prices have gained 71 percent this year.

The Energy Departmentâ€™s report on supplies in the week ended Nov. 20 is due 10:30 a.m. in Washington. Analysts were split over whether stockpiles of distillate fuel, a category that includes heating oil and diesel, rose or fell last week. Inventories were probably unchanged at 167.4 million, according to the median estimate from 17 analysts surveyed.
Japan, the worldâ€™s third-biggest oil consumer, bought 16.21 million kiloliters, or 3.29 million barrels a day, of crude oil last month, down 18.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a preliminary Finance Ministry report. The countryâ€™s imports of natural gas and coal also fell as power companies cut fuel use in response to sliding electricity demand.

Crude oil in New York is poised to test the bottom of a downtrend channel below $74 a barrel, according to an analysis of price charts by Societe Generale SA, Franceâ€™s second-largest bank by market value.

Brent crude oil for January delivery on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange traded at $76.76 a barrel, up 30 cents at 2 p.m. Singapore time. Yesterday, the contract declined $1, or 1.3 percent, to end the session at $76.46 a barrel.