October 2, 2003	Thursday	Sha’aban 5, 1424

LONDON, Oct 1: Oil prices fell on Wednesday as a rise in US refined product stocks ahead of winter ended gains of more than eight percent since Opec’s shock decision to cut back supply.

London’s Brent crude was 26 cents lower at $27.35, while New York Mercantile Exchange crude futures were down 33 cents at $28.88 per barrel.

Prices fell as the US government reported a 1.3m barrels rise in heating oil stocks, to cut a deficit against last year to 4.1 million barrels, or seven percent.

Traders have focussed on US heating oil supplies — the main warming fuel in the heavily populated US northeast — with the northern hemisphere winter approaching and US temperatures expected to be below normal this week.

“Demand was only so-so and imports and production were up relative to past years,” said Jan Stuart, analyst at Fimat USA.

Oil prices had surged since Opec announced plans last week to cut production 3.5pc to 24.5 million bpd from November.

“We feel comfortable we’re going to be able to get our hands on the crude oil supplies we need,” Cavaney said. “The (heating) fuel is going to be there. We’ll be able to get it to the consumer,” he said.—Reuters