World oil prices fell on Thursday as traders took profits from this week's record-breaking run, on the back of the strengthening US currency and rising American crude stockpiles.
New York's main oil futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, dropped 90 cents to 117.40 dollars a barrel. The May contract had struck a record high 119.90 before expiring on Tuesday.
London's Brent North Sea crude for June delivery lost 53 cents to 115.93 dollars on Thursday, after hitting a lifetime peak of 116.75 on Tuesday.
"Crude futures slipped lower (on Thursday), falling under pressure from the recovering greenback," said Sucden analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov.
"It seems that a larger than expected increase in US crude inventories during last week and a stronger dollar were good excuses for some investors to book profits."
The US Energy Information Administration said on Wednesday that US crude reserves rose by 2.4 million barrels last week, beating market expectations for a 1.5-million-barrel gain.
In the foreign exchange market on Thursday, the euro fell to 1.5749 dollars, from 1.5882 in New York late on Wednesday, after a disappointing survey on business confidence in Germany.
"The dollar continued to strengthen against the euro, putting some downward pressure on oil prices and correcting after hitting a record low beyond 1.60 dollars against the single currency earlier this week," Kryuchenkov added.
A stronger US currency makes dollar-priced crude more expensive for foreign buyers and therefore tends to discourage demand.
However, prices were supported by ongoing supply worries.
Talks aimed at heading off a planned strike at one of Britain's key oil refineries broke down on Wednesday evening, a union spokesman said.
The collapse of discussions between officials from Unite and Ineos, which owns the Grangemouth refinery between Glasgow and Edinburgh, means 1,200 workers at the site will go on strike Sunday and Monday.
"There will still be some worries around Grangemouth, and how that will impact supply of crude oil," said Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob.
"We will see some support coming from that."
Ineos has begun shutting down Grangemouth, the biggest refinery in Scotland, producing 210,000 barrels of oil a day, and has warned of fuel shortages later this week if the strike were to go ahead.
Traders were monitoring production problems in Nigeria, which is the largest crude producer in Africa.
Members of a white-collar union working for Mobil Producing Nigeria (MPN), an affiliate of US oil group ExxonMobil, began an indefinite strike on Thursday over pay and working conditions.
Earlier this week, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell said it had reduced output by 165,000 bpd following the sabotage of its supply pipelines to the Bonny export terminal in southern Nigeria.
Nigeria has a daily oil output of 2.1 million barrels but unrest in the crude-rich Niger Delta has cut exports by a quarter since January 2006.
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