June 19, 2008	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Sani 14, 1429

LONDON, June 18: Oil prices softened on Wednesday on news that US stockpiles had declined last week roughly in line with expectations and as the market mulled a possible output hike by Opec kingpin Saudi Arabia.

New York’s main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, fell $1.51 at $132.50 per barrel in late afternoon European trading.

The contract had struck a record high point $139.89 on Monday as the market was gripped by supply jitters and the weak dollar, despite news that Saudi Arabia could lift production to help dampen prices.

Brent North Sea crude for August delivery gave up 89 cents at $132.83 after reaching an all-time high of $139.32 on Monday.

The weekly report from the US Energy Information Administration revealed that crude reserves had fallen by 1.2 million barrels to 301 million barrels for the week ending June 13.

Analysts had foreseen a decline of 1.7m barrels but the difference was not deemed overly significant and the fall sparked another bout of profit-taking.—AFP