Filed under: International markets, Other issues, Oil

Oil plummeted $2.38 to $89.52 in early trading Wednesday after the U.S. Energy Information Agency announced that weekly crude oil inventories rose 4.3 million barrels to 287.1 million barrels, well above the 1.25 million barrel increase consensus estimate.

Heating oil fell 4 cents to $2.49, unleaded gasoline fell about 5 cents to $2.26, and natural gas fell about 4 cents to $8.15 per million BTUs.

However, despite the prospect of a U.S. recession that could lower oil demand, the International Energy Agency maintained its 2008 global oil demand forecast at 87.8 million barrels per day, a 2.3% increase from 2007, the organization announced Wednesday in a statement.

Still, the IEA qualified its 2008 oil demand projection by saying the estimate would be adjusted downward if evidence indicated the U.S. economy continues to slow.

Continue reading Oil falls below $90 as inventories rise, yet IEA maintains demand estimate

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Stocks Money News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.