Oil plunges $9 on mounting US economic concern

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said financial markets were under “considerable stress”, adding to concerns about the strain of the weak housing market and high energy and food prices on the US economy.

US crude tumbled $7.30 to $137.88 a barrel at 1:17 p.m. EDT. Crude hit a session low of $135.92 in the biggest drop since January 17, 1991 after the United States began bombing Iraq in the first Gulf War. London Brent crude fell $6.37 to $137.55. “It would appear to be some large-scale bank liquidation -- not a specific bank but banks in general,” said Addison Armstrong, director of market research for Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut. Investors have piled into oil and other commodities this year as a hedge against inflation and the weak dollar, pushing crude up nearly 50% to over $147 a barrel this month.

The gains extended a six-year oil rally launched as surging demand from emerging economies like China and India stretched supply growth. But consumers in large economies like the United States, already feeling the pinch of the credit crunch and housing crisis, have begun to scale back on energy use with US summer gasoline consumption falling from last year.

Fed chair Bernanke on Tuesday acknowledged that financial markets had grown more anxious in recent weeks, particularly over the financial condition of mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“The market is beginning to take notice of downbeat forecasts, as in what Fed Chairman Bernanke has warned about the risks to the economy,” said Andy Lebow, broker for MF Global in New York. “For the oil markets, that weighs heavily on demand. As the US economy continues to struggle, demand for oil going forward is worrisome. On gasoline, for example, demand has contracted already and refinery margins are going down.” Oil cartel OPEC on Tuesday cut its global demand forecast for 2008 for the fourth time this year, adding consumption would continue to slow in 2009.

Adding downward pressure, Brazilian oil giant Petrobras said its oil output was back at full capacity and would remain so through the end of a five-day energy workers strike that started at midnight on Sunday.

Chevron restored production at the 120,000-barrel per day Escravos pipeline in Nigeria, resolving one of the disruptions that have cut the African country’s supply. Traders are keeping a watch on a low-pressure weather system about 1,200 miles east of the Lesser Antilles which may develop into a tropical depression. A Reuters poll forecast that US crude stocks fell 1.2 million barrels, gasoline inventories dropped 300,000 barrels while distillates rose by 1.9 million barrels. (Reuters)