October 18, 2002	Friday	Sha'aban 11, 1423

LONDON, Oct 17: The price of oil edged lower here Thursday on renewed technical selling amid signs that a lack of fresh major developments on Iraq has resulted in the rally of recent months running out of momentum.

Benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for December delivery fell to 27.78 dollars in late afternoon trading here from 27.89 at the previous close.

In New York, the reference light sweet crude November contract fell 24 cents to 29.23 dollars per barrel.

The slide in prices came ahead of a report by the US Department of Energy (DoE), which later estimated that US crude oil stocks rose 8.9m barrels, or 3.3 per cent, to 279.4m in the week ended October 11, when compared with the previous week.—AFP