September 18, 2003	Thursday	Rajab 20, 1424

LONDON, Sept 17: Oil prices slipped sharply on Wednesday, hitting near-four month lows after weekly figures showed a bigger than expected rise in US stocks of crude oil and gasoline.

The price of Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery fell 29 cents a barrel to $25.70 in London trading, levels not seen since the end of May.

New York’s reference light sweet crude October contract was 51 cents lower at $27.05 per barrel in early deals.

The drop came after the US Department of Energy (DoE) released figures which helped allay fears of any possible shortages in crude or gasoline.

Crude stockpiles rose by 3.1 million barrels to 279.3 million barrels in the week ending September 12, the DoE said.

Inventories of gasoline, or petrol, which throughout traditionally consumption-heavy summer were significantly down on the equivalent period last year, rose 2.7 million barrels to 195.3 million barrels over the same week.

Distillate fuel stocks climbed by a strong 2.9 million barrels.

“Oil prices are reacting to the stats now,” said Prudential Bache broker Tony Machacek.

“We are seeing reasonable builds. They were actually predicted, but the market seems to want to react to bearish news at the moment,” he added.

Although most attention was focussed on the stocks figures, traders were also keeping a watch on Hurricane Isabel’s gradual progress towards the US East Coast.

US authorities ordered more than 150,000 people to leave the North Carolina coast as the hurricane, packing maximum sustained winds close to 177 km an hour, came closer to its landfall expected early Thursday.

“The hurricane is less a worry for the market because it is heading for the East Coast of the States, and there is not a very high concentration of refineries there,” said Prudential Bache broker Christopher Bellew.—AFP