LONDON, Feb 5: Oil prices fell below $90 per barrel on Tuesday and accelerated losses after fresh disappointing data stoked concerns over energy demand from the United States, a key consumer, analysts said.

New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, fell $1.53 to $88.49 per barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for March delivery shed $1.54 to $88.93.

A weak survey released on Tuesday of the US services sector showed a contraction for the first time in nearly five years in January.

Meanwhile, easing US supply worries also sent oil prices on a downward trajectory.

“Crude futures were lower (on Tuesday) ...under pressure from news that some vessels had managed to sail through the Houston Shipping Channel, which was covered by dense fog on Sunday and Monday,” said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov in London.

Prices had spiked by more than a dollar on Monday following the closure of the key shipping route, which is one of the world’s busiest petrochemical shipping lines, according to industry experts.

Traders’ attention is meanwhile beginning to switch to the forthcoming update on energy inventories in the United States.

The US Department of Energy publishes its weekly snapshot of the market on Wednesday for the week ending February 1.

“Oil prices remain under pressure from persistent economic jitters and until this is over, the market’s direction will largely depend on how equity markets behave,” Kryuchenkov noted.

Prices have now slumped by more than 10 per cent since striking a record $100.09 at the start of January 2008.

Elsewhere, traders were on alert over geopolitical tensions in Nigeria, which is Africa’s largest producer of crude.—AFP