Oil falls on worries about US gasoline demand
The price of oil fell near US$102 a barrel yesterday, erasing gains from the day before.
Benchmark US crude for September delivery dropped US$1.05 to US$102.07 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Wednesday, the Nymex contract gained 73 cents after the Energy Department reported a far larger drop in US crude inventories than what analysts had expected.
Brent crude for September delivery, a benchmark for international oils, fell 96 cents to US$107.07 on the ICE Futures exchange in London.
The price of oil has stayed above US$100 a barrel after a civilian jetliner was shot out of the sky last week over a part of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists and as Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip added to risks of instability in the Middle East.
A day after being buoyed by signs of strong demand for oil from US refineries, traders reversed course and worried about weakness in demand for gasoline.