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Oil Prices Fall to Nine-Month Low

The price of crude oil continues to slip in spite of worries that conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East could disrupt supplies.
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The price of crude oil continues to slip in spite of worries that conflict in Ukraine and the Middle East could disrupt supplies.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency describes prices that are "almost eerily calm" in spite of geopolitical risks that span "an unusually large swath of the oil-producing world."

Brent crude oil is less than $104 per barrel, its lowest price since November 2013, and down from nearly $116 in July.

IEA has lowered its petroleum demand forecast by 1 million barrels per day, citing the International Monetary Fund's outlook for weak economic growth. The agency puts the current global oil supply at 93 million barrels per day and says inventories are at an 11-month high of nearly 2.7 billion barrels.

Still, analysts caution that global crude production is as always close to capacity, so any major disruption in supply would quickly push oil prices higher.

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