London - Oil prices fell on Thursday after setting a fresh all-time high above $74 a barrel as some investors took profits across booming commodity markets.
Prices also slipped as Royal Dutch Shell said it expected to restart a key Gulf of Mexico oil and gas field by the end of May, ahead of plan.

The 140,000 barrel-per-day Mars platform was damaged by Hurricane Katrina last year.London - Oil prices fell on Thursday after setting a fresh all-time high above $74 a barrel as some investors took profits across booming commodity markets.

Prices also slipped as Royal Dutch Shell said it expected to restart a key Gulf of Mexico oil and gas field by the end of May, ahead of plan. The 140,000 barrel-per-day Mars platform was damaged by Hurricane Katrina last year.

London's Brent crude was down $1.24 at $72.50 a barrel, having earlier in the day hit an all-time high of $74.22. U.S. May crude was down $1.27 at $70.90, having hit an all-time high of $72.49 earlier.

"It's not surprising, given the levels that we've got to, that there is some profit-taking going on," said Kevin Norrish, an analyst at Barclays Capital in London.
Prices had hit new peaks after the U.S. government on Wednesday reported a larger-than-expected drop in gasoline inventories, adding to concern created by supply losses in Nigeria and the row over Iran's nuclear program.

Gasoline stocks in the U.S. fell by more than 5 million barrels as imports slipped, while demand averaged over 9.1 bpd, 0.8 percent more than a year earlier, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a report.

"We've gone from comfortable U.S. gasoline stocks to average and seem to be heading very clearly toward the low of the range," said Deborah White of SG SIB Commodities in Paris. "The market is worried about that."

Full Story: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/BUSINESS/04/20/oil.prices.thursday.reut/

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