Oil prices fell for the fourth day in a row today to take losses so far this week to 7.5 per cent amid burgeoning crude supplies and healthy gasoline stocks in the United States.
US light crude slipped 35 cents to $51.26 a barrel, extending yesterday's near 5 per cent drop after government data showed a big rise of 5.5 million barrels in crude inventories.
London's Brent crude lost 54 cents to $51.75 a barrel.
Signs this week that OPEC exporters have made good a pledge to increase world supplies along with the latest US inventory data have hammered prices, which now stand about $7, or 12 per cent, below the record $58.28 for US light crude struck on April 4th.
In its latest report for the week to April 22nd, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) put US commercial crude stocks at 324.4 million barrels, 9 per cent above a year ago and the highest level since May 31st, 2002.
The rise, which by far exceeded analysts' forecasts of a 400,000-barrel increase, came as imports into the world's biggest oil consumer surged to 10.9 million barrels per day (bpd), the third-highest daily rate on record.