Slight fall on oil despite inventory concerns

West Texas Intermediate on the New York Mercantile Exchange had lost 17 cents to $59.20 per barrel on July deliveries in early afternoon trading, while August WTI contracts fell 43 cents to $59.45 per barrel.

WTI contracts for delivery in September through April were trading at about the $60 per barrel level. In trading late in the day in London, meanwhile, IPE Brent for August deliver had fallen 43 cents to $57.90 per barrel.

Both WTI and Brent had reached record highs on Monday. The declines in prices came in anticipation of Wednesday’s weekly US inventory data.

Some analysts believe that the inventory will drop for the third week in a row, which would intensify worries that an increase in demand predicted for next winter could not be met. P

rice decreases also were in spite of a continuing threat that Norwegian oil workers might strike, causing production problems for the world’s third-largest oil exporter.

Talks continued on Tuesday, but neither the union or the Norwegian Oil Industry Association would speculate on whether the strike would occur.