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Oil prices continue to decline

12 January 2009 08:21 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Vahab Rzayev â€“ APA-Economics. Crude oil fell a fourth day after a report showing that the U.S. unemployment rate surged in December raised concern demand will drop faster than OPEC cuts output.
Crude oil for February delivery fell 87 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $40.83 a barrel at 2:44 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the lowest settlement since Dec. 30. Oil dropped 12 percent this week after gaining 23 percent the week before, the most since August 1986.
Brent crude oil for February settlement declined 25 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $44.42 a barrel on Londonâ€™s ICE Futures Europe exchange.
Prices rose as high as $50.47 this week on concern that the conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip will disrupt Middle East supplies, and on speculation Russiaâ€™s natural-gas dispute with Ukraine will spur demand for oil-based fuels.