PABLO GORONDI, Associated Press Writer
Oil prices slid below $80 a barrel Wednesday after China moved to curb bank lending and a report showed an unexpected jump in U.S. inventories of distillates and gasoline.
By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for February delivery was down 91 cents to $79.88 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. On Tuesday, the contract fell $1.73 to settle at $80.79.
Oil prices rose to a 15-month high near $84 a barrel earlier this week amid expectations a spell of bitter cold in parts of the U.S., Europe and Asia would boost demand for oil distillates such as heating oil.
But data released late Tuesday by the American Petroleum Institute showed distillate inventories increased 3.6 million barrels last week, while analysts had expected a drop of 1.7 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.