Oil falls as investors worry that swine flu could further dampen economy, oil demand

Pandemic fears push energy prices down again

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Oil prices fell for a second straight day Tuesday on fears that the outbreak of swine flu would delay an economic recovery and further dampen energy demand.

Benchmark crude for June delivery slipped 22 cents to settle at $49.92 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract Monday fell $1.41 to settle at $50.14.

Swine flu has killed more than 150 people in Mexico and number of countries reporting cases has spread to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. About 50 cases have been identified in the U.S., but no deaths.

Fears of pandemics have slowed the global economy in the past and officials with the World Health Organization, while raising alert levels Monday, warned against overreacting.

On Tuesday, countries, including Canada, Israel and France, warned against any nonessential travel to Mexico.

“Border controls do not work. Travel restrictions do not work,” WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl told reporters on Tuesday in Geneva, recalling the 2003 SARS epidemic that killed 774 people, mostly in Asia, and slowed the global economy. “There was much more economic disruption caused by these measures than there was public health benefit.”

A global economic downturn has already led to a severe tumble in crude prices. A barrel of oil cost about $100 less than a year ago.

The fear is that the outbreak could discourage people from traveling, lead to closed factories and further hurt the economy and oil consumption, said Addison Armstrong of Tradition Energy.

Prices bounced off lows of $48.55 Tuesday on news that consumer confidence is moving higher. But gains this year have been weighed down by the amount of unused oil in storage, which have reached 19-year highs.

That trend is expected to continue when the government reports crude in storage on Wednesday.

Analysts expect storage levels to grow by 1.8 million barrels, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

They also are expecting a build of 900,000 barrels of gasoline.

Still, energy prices have been relatively stable given all of the data pointing to a horrible economy in which consumers and industries are spending a lot less on energy.

“There are weeks of evidence that oil consumption is down and will remain down and it hasn’t mattered,” said oil analyst and trader Stephen Schork.

Compared with 2008 drivers are still getting a big break at the pump.

Gasoline prices, which were soaring a year ago toward $4 a gallon, have settled into a range as well at a national average of about $2.05 a gallon over the past month.

The government’s Energy Information Administration said gasoline prices for all grades averaged $2.102 a gallon for the week ended Friday, a decline of 1 cent from the previous week.

Prices ranged from $2.049 a gallon for regular gas to $2.285 for premium.

And on Tuesday there was a sliver of optimism in a couple of mixed economic reports.

The New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index rose more than 12 points to 39.2, up from a revised 26.9 in March. The reading marks the highest level since November’s 44.7 and well surpassed economists’ expectations for 29.5.

The huge jump follows a small increase in March, following a freefall in February. Still, the index remains well below year-ago levels of 62.8.

“It’s still a poor outlook,” Armstrong said.

While home prices dropped sharply in February, it was the first time in more than two years that the decline did not set another record, suggesting the housing crisis may be bottoming.

The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index of home prices in 20 major cities dropped by 18.6 percent from February 2008, slightly better than the 19 percent in January. The 10-city index slid 18.8 percent, compared with 19.4 percent the month before.

Prices at the pump fell 0.2 cents overnight to $2.048, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and Oil Price Information Service. The prices are 0.3 cents higher than a month, but a $1.555 lower than a year ago.

BP PLC, the second-largest European oil company, said Tuesday that it returned to profit in the first quarter, beating analysts’ forecasts by earning $2.56 billion.

In other Nymex trading, gasoline for May delivery fell less than a penny to settle at $1.3977 a gallon and heating oil also lost less than a penny to settle at $1.3167 a gallon. Natural gas for May delivery rose 6.8 cents to settle at $3.321 per 1,000 cubic feet.

In London, Brent prices fell 33 cents to setle at $49.99 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.

Associated Press writers Anne D’Innocenzio in New York, George Jahn in Vienna and Alex Kennedy in Singapore, and Frank Jordans and Sandy Higgins in Geneva, contributed to this report.