Want Cheap Oil? Vote for Kerry!
" He added that a win for Democrat candidate John Kerry could send
prices further down as it could mean a change of US policy in major oil
producer Iraq".
LONDON : Oil prices slid for a third day running as speculators banked
profits ahead of next week's US presidential election amid easing supply
fears and China's move to hike interest rates, analysts said.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in December,
edged down two cents to 50.90 dollars a barrel in electronic trading.
In London the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in
December lost 29 cents to 48.08 dollars a barrel in early deals.
New York's main contract tumbled 1.54 dollars, or 2.9 percent, to finish
at 50.92 dollars a barrel on Thursday, a loss of 7.7 percent since
Tuesday's close.
"Prices have been falling since Wednesday as speculative funds exit the
market" ahead of next Tuesday's dead-locked US presidential vote,
Societe Generale analyst Frederic Lasserre said.
***** He added that a win for Democrat candidate John Kerry could send
prices further down as it could mean a change of US policy in major oil
producer Iraq.******
Global crude oil prices began tumbling when a government survey
published Wednesday showed US commercial crude oil inventories surging
by a bigger than expected 4.0 million barrels the previous week.
Supply nerves calmed further on a US Department of Interior report
showing an improvement in output from the Gulf of Mexico, where
hurricane-triggered landslides had buried oil platform pipeline
networks.
News that China, a voracious oil consumer, had raised interest rates
Thursday for the first time in nearly a decade to brake activity helped
also to push prices down.
"China's decision to raise interest rates for the first time in nine
years, as it attempts to slow the rampant economic growth that has
played a key role in boosting world oil demand, helped reverse the
mid-session (oil) rally," said analysts at the Sucden brokerage.
"Surging Chinese consumption has played a key part in global energy
demand and sustaining this year's price rally."
But Barclays Capital analyst Kevin Norrish said the impact of China's
rate hike on oil demand had been "overestimated".
He said: "China's oil demand is, to an extent, sheltered from a slowdown
in general economic growth. Widespread power cuts in many regions means
that demand for energy is already being rationed and that the economy
has room to slow down considerably to bring it into line with energy
availability."
China's central bank has raised its benchmark one-year lending rate to
5.58 percent from 5.31 percent. The one-year deposit rate was hiked,
also by 27 basis points, to 2.25 percent.
Ng Weng Hoong, editor of industry publication EnergyAsia.com, said
market projections for oil prices to hit 60 dollars during the last two
months of the year were now wide of the mark.
"A push towards 60 dollars in such a short time would require a lot more
conviction as the near-term trend favours profit taking," he said.
Ng said a combination of a harsher-than-expected northern hemisphere
winter, a major terrorist strike and political unrest in key oil
producing nations was necessary to propel prices to the 60-dollar level.
World oil prices have surged by about two-thirds since the start of this
year, driven by strong demand, notably from China, and global production
strains.
Adjusted for inflation, however, prices remain well below the levels
reached in the wake of the 1979 Iranian revolution when prices surged
beyond the equivalent of 80 dollars a barrel in today's money.
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