Oil eased below $73 today as weekly figures showed US crude stockpiles fell in line with expectations, easing supply concerns over the partial shutdown of the country's largest oilfield last week.
Also cooling prices was the news that OPEC has lowered its estimate for world oil demand in 2006.
US crude oil futures ended below $73, down for the third session in a row.
Crude for September delivery last traded down $1.15 at $71.90 per barrel after earlier falling to $71.70 which marked the lowest since July 19 in New York.
In London, Brent fell 75 cents to $73.05.
US crude supplies fell 1.6 million barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, in line with analysts' expectations.
Domestic petrol stocks dropped 2.3 million barrels, while distillate supplies rose 800,000 barrels.
Prices have slumped from above $77 a barrel a week ago after BP said it would shut down only half of its 400,000 barrel per day Prudhoe Bay oilfield in Alaska for pipeline repairs, and the UN brokered a truce to end month-long fighting in the Middle East.
However, attacks against foreign oil workers in Nigeria and Iran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear development are lending support to prices, which are still up nearly 20% this year.
The energy cartel OPEC, in its August monthly report, now expects demand to grow by 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) to average 84.5 million bpd.
This represents a downward revision of 80,000 bpd from last month's figure due to an unexpected decline in consumption from the bigger industrial economies in the second quarter of this year.
'North American oil demand growth for 2006 was revised down by 40,000 bpd from the previous month,' OPEC said. The 11-nation grouping, which produces over a third of the world's crude, added that second-quarter figures had confirmed a reduction in the growth rate of the world economy despite a significant improvement in the euro zone.
