Oil Declines for Fifth Day to Near $92 a Barrel
Oil fell almost $2 Wednesday to near $92 a barrel, the fifth straight day of declines and longest run of downturns since October, Bloomberg News reported.
Crude futures fell to $92.23 on the New York Mercantile Exchange following the Department of Energy’s weekly report that showed inventories fell last week.
The decline was due in part to contraction in the European economy and a report Wednesday that showed U.S. industrial production declined in April, Bloomberg said.
Oil finished last Wednesday at $96.62 on the Nymex, the highest closing price in five weeks. Since then, the closing price has declined in four straight trading days.
DOE, meanwhile, reported Wednesday that crude inventories fell by 625,000 barrels last week from the previous week in which supplies were at an 82-year high. Analysts’ had forecast a 450,000-barrel gain, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline supplies rose by 2.6 million barrels, while distillates, which include diesel, increased by 2.3 million barrels, DOE said in its weekly report.
