The price of oil slipped to around $93 a barrel today as a report of rising US crude supplies outweighed a forecast for higher demand this year from aluminium giant Alcoa.
Benchmark oil for February delivery was down 9 cents to $93.06 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent crude, used to price international varieties of oil, edged a cent lower to $111.93 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
The American Petroleum Institute trade group said yesterday that US crude supplies grew by 2.4 million barrels last week, while petrol stocks increased by 7.9 million barrels.
Those figures were much higher than the expectations of analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos, who forecast a rise of 1.5 million barrels for crude oil and an increase of 2.6 million barrels in petrol stocks.
Meanwhile, demand for aluminium has been hurt by the weak global economy, but Alcoa predicted a 7%increase in demand this year, slightly better than the 6% increase in 2012. The company's fourth-quarter earnings were in line with forecasts while revenue exceeded Wall Street expectations.
