Oil prices slipped Friday as traders relaxed about crude oil supplies and began to consider the possible impact of a mild winter on world prices.
New York's benchmark light sweet crude contract for delivery in December fell US$0.14 to US$30.60 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude oil for December eased US$0.05 to US$28.58.
"If we don't have a very cold winter and if demand doesn't pick up, prices of crude oil and natural gas could fall sharply," said Oppenheimer market analyst Fadel Gheit.
Inventories were almost back to their five-year average after dipping 30 percent below that level only three months ago, he said.
"If crude and natural gas inventories continue to build up at this pace, the market will not be able to absorb the inventories," Gheit said.
Prices had climbed Thursday on worries about gasoline supplies following reports of a refinery problem in Louisiana.
Conoco Phillips said it was repairing a "fluid catalytic cracker" -- equipment used refine oil into gasoline -- after a problem emerged late Wednesday at its major Alliance refinery in Louisiana.
The unit, with a capacity of 104,000 barrels per day, had been taken off line during the repair.
"We are in the process of returning to normal operations," Conoco Phillips spokeswoman Laura Hopkins told reporters. "We anticipate that we will be back to normal in a few weeks."
Prudential Financial analyst Jim Ritterbusch said the refinery problem "could potentially take more than one million barrels of product off the market."
"Despite seasonal considerations, the gasoline [market] will likely provide more leadership to the crude than the heating oil where supplies are reasonably balanced against needs.
"With a moderate gasoline supply deficit still intact, the gasoline will remain sensitive to reports of refinery mishaps as clearly indicated in today's trade," he wrote in a note to clients.
US gasoline stocks are currently showing a 1.9 percent deficit from year-before levels, according to figures released Wednesday by the US Department of Energy.
Crude stocks stand 2.4 percent above their year ago levels, while distillate supplies stand at a more comfortable 6.7 percent surplus year-on-year, the department said.
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