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Gasoline, crude futures slide to one-week lows
San Francisco: Gasoline futures dropped almost five per cent Wednesday to close at their lowest level in a week as signs of waning oil demand overshadowed a big drop in last week's US gasoline supplies and dragged crude to a close under US$64 a barrel.

September unleaded gasoline climbed to a record US$2.029 a gallon on the New York Mercantile Exchange before dropping to a close at US$1.891 a gallon, down 9.26 cents.
Crude for September delivery dropped US$2.83 to close at US$63.25 a barrel, its weakest ending level in a week.

September heating oil closed at US$1.7839 a gallon, down 8.01 cents, or 4.3 pct.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries lowered its 2005 oil demand growth forecast Wednesday. At the same time, the American Petroleum Institute reported a drop in US consumption last month. Crude inventories, according to the US government's figures, are now more than 11 per cent where they stood a year ago.

OPEC said in its monthly oil market report that world oil demand growth for 2005 is now projected to rise by 1.58mn barrels a day, to an average of 83.6 million barrels per day. This equates to a marginal downward revision to previous estimates of 1.62mn barrels a day.

The oil cartel made the revision as data for countries such as the US and China pointed to lower-than-expected consumption.
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