LONDON, Oct 13: World oil prices slipped on Thursday after official US energy data revealed that crude inventories rose for the first time in seven weeks amid a fall in demand for refined products, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, fell 57 cents to $63.55 per barrel in pit trading.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery lost 59 cents to $59.98 per barrel in electronic deals.

US crude stockpiles rose by one million barrels to 306.4 million barrels in the week ending October 7, according the Department of Energy (DoE), whose data was delayed for one day owing to a public holiday in the United States on Monday.

It was the first increase since the week ending August 19, while analysts’ consensus forecast had been for a rise of 1.7 million barrels as seven US refineries remaining out of action owing to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Elsewhere the latest stocks data showed that gasoline, or petrol, inventories dropped by 2.7 million barrels last week compared with analysts’ predictions of a 1.1 million-barrel drop.

Distillates, including heating oil, fell by 3.4 million barrels compared with expectations of a 1.8 million-barrel decline.

“Initially the market found the figures slightly supportive because the stock changes were more bullish than the market expected,” said Societe Generale analyst Deborah White.

Prices later dipped however as the market digested data showing “’demand destruction’ deepening. That’s one of the reasons why the prices are coming off now,” she added.

Over the past four weeks, US demand for gasoline fell by 2.4 per cent compared with the same period in 2004, while demand for distillates dropped 4.0 per cent, the DoE data showed.

“We still have 1.9m bpd refining capacity out (of action) but the demand destruction seems to be steep enough that... we’re going to make it through the fourth quarter,” White predicted.—AFP