Oil down in Asian trade after breaching $80

I / Singapore November 19, 2009, 11:37 IST

Oil prices cooled in Asian trade today after breaching $80, spurred mainly by a decline in US energy stocks, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for December delivery, fell 21 cents to $79.37 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for January delivery was off six cents at $79.41 a barrel.

The New York contract hit $80.33 yesterday as data from the Department of Energy (DoE), released on the same day, showed US crude reserves fell 900,000 barrels in the week ending November 13.

The decline was more than the 600,000 barrels anticipated by the market.

US gasoline or petrol inventories tumbled 1.7 million barrels, confounding expectations for a small gain.

The DoE added that stockpiles of distillates, which include diesel and heating fuel, fell 300,000 barrels. Analysts had pencilled in a bigger drop of 500,000 barrels.

"The latest report included some mildly bullish points for oil markets," analysts from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia said in a report.

However they cautioned that "the big picture remains one of still subdued US oil demand."