LONDON, January 22: Sickly world oil markets tumbled to fresh lows not seen for almost four years on Thursday as news of bulging US crude stocks confirmed growing world oversupply.Benchmark North Sea Brent crude slumped below the psychologically important $15 a barrel level to trade 39 cents lower at $14.87 in London after dipping briefly to a low of $14.78.
Prices have not been as weak since early 1994 when Brent briefly dipped below $13 a barrel. "It's just a feeling of gloom and doom out there," said BobFinch, head trader at Vitol SA. He said prices had fallen on a combination of figures showing a big rise in US crude stock and fresh weakness in Asian stock markets. "The only thing that could turn it round at the moment would be a prolonged spell of cold winter weather and an emergency OPEC meeting, and that (meeting) doesn't look like it's going to happen," he said.
Figures overnight showed US crude inventories rose a hefty 14.643 million barrels in the week to January 16, dwarfing predictions of amuch smaller rise.
Crude in US storage now stands a full 32 million barrels higher than a year ago, equivalent to almost two day's extra supply.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
