Oil Plunges Anew

Energy prices sank Thursday to another 19-month low as colder winter weather failed to provide any relief from a multisession pullback.

Nearby contracts for light sweet crude closed down $2.14, or 4%, at $51.88 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Natural gas was 46 cents lower at $6.29 per million British thermal units. Heating oil was down 5 cents at $1.48 a gallon, and gasoline was losing 4 cents at $1.39 a gallon.

"There is just no reason to feel very bullish right now," says Gary Mead, an analyst at Virtual Energy in London. "OPEC cuts have not taken effect, last year's hurricane season passed without incident, and supplies seem pretty secure." ...