Oil Continues Slide, Closing Below $61 a Barrel

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rude oil futures briefly dipped below $60 a barrel before dropping $1.20 to close at $60.46 on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the Department of Energy’s weekly report revealed strong gains in distillates, Bloomberg reported Wednesday.

According to DOE’s report, U.S. stockpiles of distillate fuels, a category that includes diesel, gasoline and heating oil, rose to 148.7 million for the week ended Sept. 15., Bloomberg said.

An announcement yesterday by President Bush, stating that the United States would back diplomatic efforts by the European Union to persuade Iran to halt uranium enrichment, also helped push prices down, Bloomberg reported.

Controversy surrounding Iran’s nuclear program, which prompted the U.S. to call for economic sanctions against the oil producing nation, helped propel oil prices to record highs in July as speculators mulled the possibility of supply disruptions, Bloomberg said.

Meanwhile, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries has made no plans to hold an emergency meeting to discuss oil’s recent decline, Bloomberg reported.

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