crude lost 5.4% for the week and 78 cents on the session to close at $61.84 a barrel
After the International Energy Agency cut its 2006 oil-demand growth forecast, traders sent crude to $61.20 a barrel -- its lowest level of the year. The previous low was $61.68 a barrel on Jan 3.
"The lack of follow through buying to yesterday's brief rally emphasizes that participants have momentarily refocused on fundamentals," said Mike Fitzpatrick, an energy analyst at Fimat, in a note to clients.
But Fitzpatrick said the fall in prices was only a correction and predicted the three-year rally would soon resume.
The IEA trimmed its 2006 oil demand growth forecast, to 1.78 million barrels of oil a day from 1.83 million barrels.
"Unusually cold weather in Europe was largely offset by mild North American weather and weak U.S. petrochemical demand. Pockets of weakness were seen in other areas, but 2006 is expected to see a recovery in Chinese and U.S. demand growth," the IEA said.
In addition to the IEA report, the Energy Department's latest U.S. inventory report as of Feb. 3 showed that levels of gasoline were 12.4% higher than the year-ago level and crude supplies were up nearly 11% compared with last year.
Edward Meir, an analyst at Man Financial, said the climbing inventories are taking the focus off worldwide risks to crude supply to the U.S. That's making it difficult for the bulls to gain any real traction, he said.
"This is not to minimize the importance of the events swirling around us, but merely to suggest that they will now have to hit the markets with more urgency than they have in the past," Meir said.
For example, concerns about Venezuelan imports are abating after the country's ambassador to the U.S. pledged to continue providing oil to the U.S., according to news reports.
The IEA also increased its 2006 non-OPEC global crude oil supply growth forecast by 20,000 barrels per day to 1.3 million barrels per day with growth coming from the former Soviet Union, Africa, and North and Latin America.
However, those supply sources "may be at risk, given normal operational risk and the current instability in Nigeria, Latin America, etc.," said Friedman Billings Ramsey analyst Jacques Rousseau in a note to clients.
Rousseau also pointed out that the IEA "expects crude oil prices to be supported by the lack of global refining capacity, the removal of MTBE from the U.S. gasoline pool, low global inventories of refined products, and the lack of spare upstream production capacity."