* Oil falls to lowest level since February 2005
* European central banks cut interest rates
* U.S. factory orders down, jobless up
(Updates throughout, recasts, changes date from previous,
LONDON)
By Edward McAllister
NEW YORK, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Oil slid more than 2 percent on
Thursday to near a four-year low in response to further bleak
economic data that could spell a deeper decline in global
energy demand.
Data released Thursday showed the number of U.S. workers on
jobless rolls hit a 26-year high and U.S. factory orders fell
sharply for the third month in a row.
U.S. light crude for January delivery <CLc1> dropped $1.08
to $45.71 a barrel by 11:40 am EST (1628 GMT). It earlier
touched a low of $45.30, its lowest since Feb. 9, 2005.
London Brent crude <LCOc1> fell 93 cents to $44.51.
Oil prices have dropped more than $100 a barrel from record
highs over $147 in July, as the global credit crunch has eaten
into demand in large consumer nations.
"We think the oil market is mostly riding on a wave of
worry over weak demand that has taken on a life independent of
many actual statistics," said Tim Evans, energy analyst, Citi
Futures Perspective in New York.
U.S. stocks were little changed on Thursday as investors
snapped up downtrodden retail shares, offsetting a Commerce
Department report showing that factory orders in October
plunged 5.1 percent, the biggest drop since July 2000.
A Labor Department report showed that the number of U.S.
workers on jobless benefits rolls was the highest since
December 1982.
European central banks cut interest rates on Thursday to
try to restore some vitality to their feeble economies, many of
which are already in recession. []
Sweden's central bank cut by a record 175 basis points, the
European Central Bank cut by 75 points and the Bank of England
cut by 100 points. []
Oil producer group the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries will consider another round of output curbs
to try to defend prices when it next meets on Dec. 17 in
Algeria. []
"It is obvious that the market is oversupplied," said
Iran's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi. "If you remove
oversupply and produce exactly what the market needs, it would
be good for everybody." []
Oil rose briefly on Wednesday when U.S. Energy Information
Administration data revealed an unexpected fall in fuel
inventories last week in the world's top energy consumer.
Crude stocks, for example, fell 400,000 barrels in the week
to Nov. 28, against an expected 1.7 million barrels build.
[]
Stocks of gasoline and distillates, which include heating
oil, also showed surprising declines.
But U.S. refinery utilization fell 1.9 percentage points to
84.3 percent of capacity against a predicted rise of 0.2
percentage point, pointing to weak demand.
(Additional reporting by Gene Ramos and Robert Gibbons in New
York, Jane Merriman in London and Maryelle Demongeot in
Singapore; editing by Jim Marshall)
