Oil extends losses on surprise rise in US crude stocks

Oil prices extended their losses in Asian trade today amid renewed worries about energy demand in the United States where data showed an unexpected jump in national crude reserves, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery fell 29 cents to $63.06 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for September delivery was off eight cents to $66.45 a barrel.

Both contracts had closed weaker yesterday after the weekly energy reserves report from the US Department of Energy (DoE) surprised market watchers who predicted a drawdown in crude reserves.

Investor sentiment continued to remain under pressure from the DoE figures released yesterday, analysts said.

"Inventories are extremely high, demand is weak and we are still in a recession," said Tim Evans, an analyst with Citi Futures Perspective in New York.

"Why would you want to buy a commodity that is this abundant?" he said.

The DoE said US crude oil inventories surged 5.1 million barrels in the week ended July 24.

Most analysts had expected a decline of 1.2 million barrels and the huge increase highlighted surprisingly weak demand in the recession-mired US, the world's largest energy user.

Underscoring the weakness of US demand, the DoE said that consumption fell 4.1 per cent over the past four weeks compared with the same period in 2008.