3/5/08 - Oil Breaks $104 Mark For First Time - Inventory Projections Off By 5MB - CNN Money

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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Oil prices topped $104 a barrel Wednesday for the first time ever after a government report said supplies of crude fell significantly last week, instead of rising as expected.

U.S. light crude for April delivery reached $104.56, beating the previous all-time intraday high of $103.95 set Monday. It eased to $103.73, still up $4.21 on the session. Oil had traded up $2.05 to $101.57 a barrel just prior to the inventory report's release at 10:30 a.m. ET.

In its weekly report, the Energy Information Administration said crude stocks fell by 3.1 million barrels last week. Analysts were looking for a rise of 2.3 million barrels, according to a Dow Jones poll.

The severe and unexpected decline was perhaps caused by last week's fog in the Gulf Coast region. "It looks like some oil was lost in the fog," said senior Alaron Trading analyst Phil Flynn. "Analysts didn't think it would affect supply, but it did."

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http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/05/markets/oil_eia/index.htm