Oil Prices Lowest Since July

Oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel Thursday to less than $58, a nearly four-month low, as bulging U.S. crude inventories piled pressure on investors to sell.

Light crude oil settled at $57.80 a barrel, down $1.13, in New York trading, marking its lowest close since July 21.

Oil prices have dropped more than $13 from a late-August record above $70 as signs of weakening growth in oil demand and rising inventories in the United States have offset the effects of hurricane damage along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

“We see the bulls under increasing pressure to finally just give it up and let the market fall,” said Tim Evans, an analyst with IFR Energy Services in the United States.

The weakness could prove temporary, however, if the Northern Hemisphere winter turns colder than normal after an unusually mild start, the International Energy Agency said.

World energy demand emerged largely unaffected after a violent hurricane season in the Atlantic Ocean, the agency said in a monthly report.

“The market has coped very well with the hurricane situation on the surface, particularly on the refinery side,” said Lawrence Eagles, head of the markets division at the agency.

But the agency said the risk remained that prices could rise, especially if temperatures fell below normal during the winter as many forecasters have predicted.

Crude supplies in United States, the world’s biggest consumer of the commodity, rose by a greater-than-expected 4.5 million barrels last week, building inventories to nearly 13% above a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.