August 23, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1424

LONDON, Aug 22: Oil prices fell back marginally on Friday after the previous day’s gasoline-fuelled rises, although analysts said that a “nervous” market could move up again soon.

The price of reference Brent North Sea crude oil for October delivery fell one cent per barrel to $29.70, having surged 84 cents the day before.

New York’s light sweet crude benchmark September contract showed a drop of 11 cents to $31.77 per barrel in early dealing, after a rise of 87 cents on Thursday.

The stiff price rises had been prompted by worries about draining US stockpiles of gasoline, as well as unrest in producing nations Iraq, Nigeria and Venezuela.

On Wednesday, weekly US government statistics had shown gasoline stocks falling to their lowest level since November last year.

Gasoline remained “in the limelight,” said Prudential Bache analyst Tony Machacek.

“Prices are easing back after the big rally yesterday, which was so violent and such an excessive move in the upside,” he said.

“But it is still holding a lot of the gains, people are worried that gasoline prices may rally again aggressively at some stage next week.”—AFP