Oil prices slumped to their lowest levels since late May this evening as a jump in US motor fuel stockpiles added to concerns about weak energy demand worldwide. US crude tumbled $2.39 to $60.54 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude sank $2.35 to $60.88.
The US government said today that petrol inventories in the country increased by 1.9 million barrels during the week ending July 3, while analysts had expected a gain of only 900,000 barrels.
Elsewhere, the oil producers' cartel OPEC said it had revised downwards its medium and long-term forecasts for global oil demand in the wake of the current economic crisis.
OPEC said that under its revised main forecast, oil demand would be below 106 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2030, down from 113 million bpd.
OPEC is forecasting global oil demand of 90.2 million bpd in 2015 and 105.6 million bpd in 2030, while the International Energy Agency (IEA) is pencilling in 94.4 million bpd and 106.4 million bpd respectively.
Crude oil prices have fallen heavily this week on mounting concern that the battered world economy and weak energy demand was unlikely to recover any time soon.
OPEC - which pumps about 40% of the world's oil - is 'comfortable' with the current oil price, but would like it to be higher, the cartel's chief Abdalla Salem El-Badri said. Current oil prices of around $60 'don't encourage investment,' he told reporters when asked whether the cartel would change its production targets if the difficult economic environment prevailed until the end of the year.
Oil prices have slumped owing to the severe economic downturn after striking historic peaks of more than $147 a barrel a year ago.
G8 leaders meanwhile agreed at a summit that $70-80 was a fair price to pay for a barrel of oil, a spokeswoman for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters.
