Oil prices fell below 33 dollars on Thursday for the first time since Sept 15 as the prospect that the US government would agree to pump oil from its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) strengthened.
Benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for November delivery was selling at 32.82 dollars a barrel, against 33.55 dollars at the opening and 33.74 dollars at the close on Wednesday.
At Salomon Smith Barney, oil market head Peter Gignoux said: "The reason why prices are going lower is that the market is anticipating a release from the SPR."
"There was some news from ABC news (in the United States) saying that the release would come on Friday."
Prudential Bache analyst Tony Machacek agreed, saying that the price fall had been prompted by reports that Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic presidential nominee, had proposed releasing oil from the emergency reserves and that President Clinton was mulling the proposals.
The US government said on Tuesday it was considering releasing oil from the US strategic petroleum reserve or taking other "appropriate" steps to deal with the surge in crude oil prices.
But Clinton appeared reluctant to tap the reserves, suggesting it would take him "a few more days" to gauge the impact of a recent OPEC decision to hike output by 800,000 barrels a day from October 1 – LONDON (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
