Crude oil prices fell after touching another record high Monday as brokers widely expected that US distillate supplies had risen for last week.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for July delivery fell 47 cents to end at 58.90 dollars a barrel. Intraday prices hit 59.70 dollars a barrel,the highest price since the contract was introduced in 1983. Meanwhile, in London the August Brent crude-oil futures contract shed 82 cents to finish at 57.50 dollars per barrel on International Petroleum Exchange.

On Tuesday, three factors drove oil futures lower. A Bloomberg's report showed that all 12 analysts surveyed expected a rise in US supplies of distillate for last week. Distillate was a category that included diesel and heating oil. Media news said the government of Norway was likely to step in to prevent a strike by oil workers. July crude futures contract missed 60 dollars a barrel in the last trading day, giving traders enough reasons to take profits from recent gains.

Meanwhile, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based research firm said that oil producers would boost supplies fast enough to meet demand growth over the next five years and "take the pressure off prices around 2007 to 2008 or thereafter and even lead to a period of price weakness."

The firm's report countered arguments that had pushed prices higher in these days.

Source: Xinhua