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18:20 06Oct2005 RTRS-UPDATE 5-Oil at two-month low as U.S. cars idle

(updates prices)
By Janet McBride
LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Oil slid to its lowest level in two months on Thursday as U.S. drivers eased off the gas and the world's energy watchdog said there was no pressing need to dip further into emergency fuel reserves.
U.S. data on Wednesday showed the world's biggest consumer was burning through less fuel than a year ago. The news allayed concerns the United States could run short of heating oil and gasoline with a dozen U.S. refineries still shut by hurricanes.
U.S. crude <CLc1> was down $1.64 at $61.15 a barrel at 1520 GMT having briefly dipped below $61 in its fifth straight day of losses. Gasoline fell 7.78 cents to $1.8300 a gallon after Wednesday's 11 cents tumble.
"We're not a million miles away from where we were before Hurricane Katrina," said Emanuele Ravano, head of portfolio management at PIMCO in London.
"In terms of miles driven, U.S. motorists are being a little more cautious. But it remains open to question whether this is a two-week phenomenon."
Prices may have pulled back a long way from late August's record high -- $70.85 for U.S. crude -- but in real terms they are still close to levels unseen in a quarter of a century.
The world's big consumers are feeling the pain. The European Commission forecast euro zone economic growth could slow in 2005 and noted risks from expensive oil.
"I am struck that there is some demand destruction related to both high prices and logistic constraints," Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency, told Reuters.
The Paris-based organisation, adviser to the world's industrialised countries, has already launched one global release of emergency reserves this year -- the first in over a decade -- and is on stand-by to do so again.
"The question is how long will demand destruction remain? If it stays a long time and increases, then maybe we don't need anything. If it is only temporary, it is more difficult to see a balanced market," he said in an interview.
Analysts at SG Commodities said they believed weaker demand would persist even with gasoline and heating oil trading below $2 a gallon. And U.S. bicycle sales are booming.

NO NEED FOR EMERGENCY FUEL
Washington has offered to tap its emergency reserves of crude and heating oil if needed. But U.S. government data on Wednesday suggested this may not be immediately necessary.
Total oil products demand over the past four weeks averaged 19.9 million barrels per day, or 2.9 percent less than over the same period last year.
This lower demand offset sharp declines in U.S. fuel stocks last week, which were depressed by refiners working at only about 70 percent of capacity, the lowest since the government started keeping weekly records in 1990.
Gasoline stocks in the U.S. fell 4.3 million barrels in the week ended September 30, double analysts' expectations. Distillates, including heating oil, fell 5.6 million barrels, more than forecasts for a 1.9 million-barrel drop.
Some analysts argued that prices may yet rebound as supplies of winter fuel are threatened by the delayed recovery of hurricane-battered U.S. refineries.
"It's almost impossible that oil stocks will build soon amid prolonged plant shutdowns, and supply concerns are still there towards winter," said Hiroyuki Kitakat, director of commodities business at Barclays Capital in Japan.
A dozen refineries, accounting for 18 percent of U.S. total capacity, remain shut after hurricanes Rita and Katrina, a daily loss of more than 1.3 million barrels of gasoline.
Washington said last week up to 15 percent of U.S. refining capacity could be out for at least another couple of weeks.
A strike at France's biggest refinery, Total's Gonfreville plant, and a blockade of the Fos-Lavera oil port near Marseille could take out up to one million bpd of refining capacity. France is a big exporter of gasoline to the United States.
And high natural gas prices could increase demand for oil as an alternative heating fuel. Nearly three-quarters of offshore Gulf of Mexico gas production remains shut after hurricanes.
(additional reporting by Jiwon Chung and Marguerita Choy)
((Editing by William Hardy; Reuters Messaging: janet mcbride.reuters.com@reuters.net; janet.mcbride@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 7646))

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Thursday, 06 October 2005 18:20:55RTRS [nT146262] {EN}ENDS

Самая низкая цена на нефть за последние 2 месяца?

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