LONDON, Oct 5: Oil prices fell on Wednesday as cooler demand for gasoline offset a drop in US crude inventories in the wake of supply disruptions caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, lost 10 cents to $63.80 per barrel in early deals.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery fell 38 cents to $60.84 per barrel.

US reserves of crude oil, petrol and heating oil all fell over the past week as supply bottlenecks lingered from Katrina and Rita, the government said.

The Department of Energy said crude stocks were down 300,000 barrels at 305.4 million barrels in the week to Sept 30.

Gasoline (petrol) inventories dropped 4.3 million barrels to total 195.5 million, the DoE said.

Distillate supplies used for diesel and heating oil dropped 5.6 million barrels to 128 million, it said.

“The data is rather bearish,” said an analyst for a European bank, who wished to remain anonymous.

“We have big falls in inventories but this was expected with more than 24 per cent of US refinery capacity out of action,” the analyst said, adding that prices cooled also because of data showing that demand for gasoline was 2.6 per cent lower than a year earlier.

The DoE added that US refineries were operating at only 69.8 per cent capacity in the week to September 30, against 86.7 per cent the week before, after Rita struck the Texas and Louisiana coast on September 24.

US refineries were already struggling with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which swept through the Gulf Coast at the end of August.

With the northern hemisphere winter fast approaching, concerns are growing that supplies of products like heating oil could be tight and that may trigger another run-up in crude prices. —AFP