Oil Sinks on EIA Demand Data (Update3)

Wednesday at 10:35 a.m. EDT the Energy Information Administration will release its weekly report on U.S. petroleum stores. The report will also include data on domestic oil consumption for the most recent one-week and four-week periods. Last week's EIA report estimated that oil consumption during the four-week period ending Aug. 1 fell 20.1 million barrels, or 2.6%, relative to the same period in 2007. Consumption for the week ending Aug. 1 was said to have dropped 4.1% year-over-year.

The EIA's weekly crude oil reports mostly rely on estimations that are ultimately validated two or three months after the first numbers are originally released. Economist Jim Williams says that the most recent string of EIA reports have all recorded large downward revisions to their previous consumption predictions.

Elsewhere in energy markets, Tuesday's cease-fire order in the Russia/Georgia conflict was good news for BP and its BTC pipeline, causing BP shares to jump 1.2% to $60.97. However, the rest of the integrated energy group moved lower Tuesday. ConocoPhillips (COP) slid 0.4% to $79.95, Chevron (CVX) shed 0.6% to $83.56, and Exxon Mobil (XOM) fell 1.6% to $76.88.

The U.S. Oil Fund (USO), an exchange-traded fund that closely tracks the performance of WTI crude oil futures contracts at the Nymex, finished down 1.1% at $91.49.

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