Oil prices fell sharply for the fourth day in a row Wednesday as more US refineries restart operation and the US may tap an emergency supply of heating oil in the Northeast.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November, fell 1.11 dollars to close at 62.79 dollars a barrel.

In London, the price of Brent North Sea crude for November delivery sank 1.10 dollars to 60.12 dollars a barrel.

US inventories of commercial crude oil, gasoline and heating oil all declined in the week ending Sept. 30, the Energy Department reported Wednesday in its weekly survey.

The survey showed that the country's commercial crude oil stocks decreased 300,000 barrels last week to 305.4 million.

The declines in the US inventories may be revised and others feel the repairs on refineries will occur sooner rather than later, which would tend to depress prices as supplies resume, some traders said.

The release of oil from the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the prospect of a release from the emergency heating oil reserve have weighed on the market recently.

US government figures showed that demand for gasoline was 2.6 percent lower than a year earlier.

US refineries were operating at 69.8 percent capacity last week, compared with 86.7 percent the week before, reflecting the impact caused by Hurricane Rita which struck the Texas and Louisiana coast on September 24.

Source: Xinhua