World oil prices fell strongly today, overturning earlier gains, after official data showed US crude
inventories at the highest level for six years, easing concerns over possible supply shortages.
New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, tumbled $1.07 dollars to $47.90 dollars per barrel in early deals. In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude oil for delivery in July dropped 90 cents to $48.44 dollars per barrel.
US crude oil stockpiles rose over the past week to their highest level in six years, the government said today in a report that beat analysts' forecasts and sent oil prices lower.
The US Department of Energy (DoE) said crude oil inventories for the week ended May 13 rose by 4.3 million barrels to 334 million barrels, the highest monthly figure since May 1999.
The private-sector American Petroleum Institute (API) said that its own survey of oil brokers showed an increase of 2.53 million barrels in the week to 331.26 million.
Wall Street analysts had been expecting an increase of only about one million barrels for the crude oil stocks.
The DoE said that gasoline supplies rose 1.1 million barrels over the week to 214.8 million, far more than the 800,000 barrels foreseen by analysts. The API data gave an increase of 317,000 barrels to 213.53 million.
