November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

LONDON, Nov 19: Oil prices eased back on Wednesday as news of rising levels of US crude oil stocks assuaged supply worries.

The price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for January delivery fell 51 cents per barrel to $29.96 here in late trading.

New York’s reference light sweet crude December contract was down 23 cents at $33.05 in early deals.

Prices gave back some of the big gains from the previous day, after the US Department of Energy reported crude oil stocks climbed by 2.9 million barrels in the week ended November 14.

Gasoline inventories fell by 100,000 barrels while distillates — including heating oil — fell by 2.3 million barrels, according to the government.

“The market is reacting to the headlines on crude, which are slightly bearish because they show a surprise build in crude stocks,” said Commerzbank analyst David Thomas.

Oil prices had spiked above $33 a barrel in New York on Tuesday on a mix of factors including worries about the possibility of further Opec output cuts, volatile financial markets and ongoing violence in Iraq, traders said.—AFP