World oil prices weakened today as traders awaited the weekly snapshot of energy inventories in top global crude consumer the US.
New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate crude for delivery in May dipped five cents to $104.15 a barrel.
Brent North Sea crude for June dropped $1.02 to $117.76 per barrel in London deals.
The US government's Department of Energy will publish its report on oil inventories for last week later this evening.
American crude reserves are expected to increase by 900,000 barrels in the week ending April 13, according to analysts.
Oil prices had risen yesterday in the wake of a successful Spanish bond auction, encouraging US corporate earnings and the IMF's raised growth forecasts for the global economy.
Spain said it sold more 12- and 18-month bonds than it had planned - slightly easing concerns over the country's ability to repay its debts - although yields on the two were higher than previous sales. Investor attention will switch to a crucial auction of longer-term 10-year Spanish government debt tomorrow.
Yesterday's bond auctions eased fears of a fresh euro zone debt crisis, while markets found support from the International Monetary Fund's latest World Economic Outlook report.
The IMF raised its global growth forecast to 3.5% for this year, up from a January estimate of 3.3%. It also predicted that the US economy - the world's biggest - would grow this year by 2.1%, up 0.3 percentage points from its previous January estimate.
However, the fund also warned that Washington's bickering politicians should solve its debt problems in order to get the still-vulnerable economy on a strong footing.
