Oil prices slide in Asian trade

Crude prices slipped in Asian trade today with a key pipeline supplying oil from Canada to the US expected to resume operations soon, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in October, fell 48 cents to $75.54 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for November delivery retreated 27 cents to $79.15 in its first trading day.

Crude markets were sliding "on expectation that a Canada-US crude pipeline will resume after a week-long interruption," Phillip Futures said in a report.

"Enbridge said repairs on its US-bound Line 6A were completed on Tuesday but it would be up to the US Department of Transport to determine if the pipeline can restart by the end of the week,"
the report added.

The closure of the pipeline last Thursday had supported oil prices over the past several days until reports of its reopening sent prices sliding.

Oil markets were prevented from incurring further losses by data released yesterday by the US Department of Energy showing a fall in crude inventories.

"Crude's losses were tempered... (by) government data that showed US crude inventories dropped 2.49 million barrels in the week to September 10," the Phillip Futures report stated.

The stockpile drawback was in line with analyst expectations.