Oil prices steady in Asian trade mkt

New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for July delivery, was 17 cents lower at $126.45 a barrel after losing a hefty $4.41 to close at $126.62 per barrel in trading at the New York Mercantile Exchange yesterday.     

Brent North Sea crude for July delivery was 11 cents lower at $126.78 a barrel following a slide of $4.04 to settle at $126.89 yesterday in London.     

 

The slide in prices came after both contracts struck historic peaks a week ago. Brent hit $135.14 and New York prices reached $135.09 on tight supply fears.     

"I guess the market's sort of factoring in the growing understanding that demand in the US is just not gonna recover," said Jason Feer, of energy market analysts Argus Media Ltd in Singapore.     
Prices initially jumped higher yesterday after a weekly report on United States energy stockpiles. Values then tumbled as some analysts questioned if energy demand was dropping amid sky-high prices.     

In its report, the US Department of Energy (DoE) said American crude reserves slumped 8.8 million barrels in the week ending May 23.     

Feer said analysts concluded there had been a problem unloading stocks of crude because of fog at US terminals, and in fact there is a lot of oil "sitting in tankers offshore".