Oil prices slipped today to just below $57 a barrel as speculators took profits from record peaks a day earlier and amid prospects of rising crude supplies in the United States as well as from OPEC producers.
US light crude traded 29 cents lower to $56.72, bringing losses from yesterday's $58.28 all-time high to $1.56, or 2.7 per cent. London's Brent crude dipped 3 cents to $56.20 a barrel, 2.5 per cent off Monday's record at $57.65.
Despite the pullback, US crude is about 30 per cent above levels at the end of 2004 on concerns that strong growth in global consumption is straining world supplies close to the limits.
US crude stocks are running at a near three-year high and analysts are predicting another rise in stocks of 2.3 million barrels when the government Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases fresh data tomorrow for the week to April 1st.
The latest rally has piled pressure on the Opec producers' cartel to increase supplies to the global 84 million barrel-per-day (bpd) market, despite burgeoning crude stocks in the United States, the biggest oil consumer.
Opec oil ministers have begun telephone consultations over a possible output rise of 500,000 bpd to cool prices, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said.
Acting Secretary-General Adnan Shihab-Eldin said yesterday OPEC, excluding Iraq, had lifted output by 300,000-500,000 bpd in March versus February, and added that demand for the group's crude was lower than supply "by a big margin".