Oil Falls to Two-Month Low $88.14 Per Barrel
Oil fell to less than $89 a barrel — a two-month low — following a Department of Energy report that showed crude output rose to an almost 16-year high last week, Bloomberg reported.
Crude futures fell $3.75 to finish at $88.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange following the DOE report, Bloomberg said.
DOE said crude output rose by 11,000 barrels a day to 6.52 million bbd last week, the most since December 1996.
Fuel demand slipped 0.3% to 18.3 million bbd in the four weeks ended Sept. 28, the lowest level since April, the department said in its weekly inventories report.
With the exception of last Wednesday, when it closed at $89.98, oil has not finished a Nymex trading day below $90 a barrel since Aug. 2.
DOE also reported that crude inventories fell 500,000 barrels last week, which left supplies 8.4% above the same time last year. Analysts had forecast a 1.5 million-barrel drop, Bloomberg reported.
Gasoline stockpiles rose by 100,000 barrels for the week ended Saturday, while distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, dropped by 3.7 million barrels, DOE said.
