London, Oct 30: Oil prices dipped further today in the wake of weekly data for US energy stockpiles that revealed bigger than expected inventories of crude and heating oil. The price of benchmark brent north sea crude oil for delivery in December fell 46 cents per barrel to 26.98 Dollars in early deals, having dropped by around 60 cents the previous day.
New York's reference light sweet crude December contract showed a decline of 34 cents to 28.57 Dollars in out-of-hours electronic trading.
The lower prices were sparked by us department of energy figures showing that the country's crude oil stocks rose 3.6 million barrels to 291.8 million last week, while distillate inventories (diesel and heating oil) increased by 1.6 million barrels.
"It is still moving pretty much on the back of (Wednesday's) figures," said GNI trader Lee Elliott.
"We saw an unexpected rise in crude stocks and heating oil stocks. Funds still had long positions and found a reason to liquidate with those figures."
Prices were likely to continue dropping during the day, with a 26.70 Dollars per barrel seen as a resistance level for Brent crude, Elliott added.
Bureau Report