Oil prices fall below $55 a barrel
By Our Corporate Bureau | 19 Oct 2004
New York: Oil prices fell on Monday in what traders described as a wave of profit-taking after futures hit a new high above $55 a barrel. New York's main crude oil contract slumped $1.26 to $53.67 a barrel yesterday.
The main oil contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, had briefly touched an unprecedented $55.33 a barrel in electronic trading on fears of heating oil supplies in winter.
Prices have surged about $10 in the past month, primarily due to over production and delays in the Gulf of Mexico, hit by Hurricane Ivan in mid-September.
But
with the amount of excess capacity and an immediate
surplus supply of about 1 per cent of daily demand
(now estimated to be above 82 million barrels) any
supply outage is expected to factor into prices
