Oil slides below $76 as traders eye US supplies

By ALEX KENNEDY Associated Press Writer

SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices slid below $76 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders awaited the latest U.S. supply figures for clues about the strength of demand for crude.

Benchmark crude for November delivery was down 63 cents to $75.89 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added 3 cents to settle at $76.52 on Monday.

Crude inventories likely rose 2.2 million barrels last week, according to analysts surveyed by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos. The American Petroleum Institute plans to announce its inventory numbers later Tuesday while the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration reports its weekly supply data Wednesday.

Oil prices have snaked around the $75 a barrel level for most of the last year as U.S. crude demand remains sluggish amid an uneven economic recovery. Brimming crude storage levels are also weighing on prices.

"The existing fundamentals could kick prices down to half or less of what they are right now," Cameron Hanover said in a report. "Many traders opt to keep their powder dry until more definitive signals are presented" about the economic outlook, it said.

Investors will be closely watching the latest U.S. indicators due this week including gross domestic product, car sales and industrial production.

In other Nymex trading in October contracts, heating oil fell 1.28 cents to $2.110 a gallon and gasoline dropped 0.28 cent to $1.946 a gallon. Natural gas was steady at 3.797 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent crude fell 70 cents to $78.89 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.