Crude oil fell for the first day in four after a government report showed an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. inventories last week and OPEC's president signaled that the group wouldn't cut production. Supplies climbed 3.4 million barrels to 295.6 million barrels, more than triple the 1 million-barrel increase that was the median forecast among 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Oil prices are too high for a further cut in production or quotas, said Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who is the OPEC's president and Kuwait's oil minister. OPEC ministers decided on Dec. 10 to reduce daily oil output by 1 million barrels. ``The promised OPEC cuts are not impacting U.S. import levels,'' said Marshall Steeves, an analyst with Refco Group Inc. in New York. ``I'm not sure whether shipping times or a lack of compliance are responsible, but it's not being felt.'' It could be that all those dreadful snowstorms which kept people off the streets, also kept them from using up the gasoline in their cars. And overall the winter has been warmer than usual, I understand, which means that home heating oil is being used up more slowly as well.
Crude oil for March delivery fell 86 cents, or 1.7 percent, to $48.78 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Yesterday's close of $49.64 a barrel was the highest since Nov. 29. Oil is up 42 percent from a year ago. In London, the March Brent crude-oil futures contract fell 45 cents, or 1 percent, to close at $46.51 a barrel on the International Petroleum Exchange. Brent touched $46.94 yesterday, the highest since Nov. 4.
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