Oil fell below $76 a barrel on Tuesday as investors took profits after a surge towards record highs fuelled by supply concerns and a wave of speculative buying.
London Brent crude for September delivery, the new front-month, was down 47 cents to $75.82 a barrel by 1010 GMT. Prior to its expiry on Monday, the August contract rose to $78.40 -- just shy of Brent's record $78.65.
U.S. crude was up 14 cents at $74.29. It had touched a new 11-month high of $74.50 on Monday despite steep losses in gasoline and heating oil.
"Despite yesterday's pull back prices remain very well supported, helped by tightening fundamentals and strong market sentiment," Barclays Capital said in a report.
A series of refinery outages in the United States has kept markets on edge during the peak driving season, but some plants are restarting.
U.S. gasoline stocks are expected to have risen by 900,000 barrels last week while distillate inventories probably increased by 1.1 million barrels, a preliminary Reuters poll found.
Some analysts said an increase in fuel supplies may do little to dampen a rally from around $50 in January.
Speculative investors have aided the run-up by pushing cash into commodities amid concerns world demand growth will continue to stretch supplies.
"The expectation of higher prices is causing the money to flow in," said Bob Greer of commodity investor PIMCO.
Goldman Sachs said on Monday oil could reach $90 a barrel this autumn and $95 by the end of this year if OPEC did not relent on its export curbs and pump more crude.
But Iran, OPEC's second biggest producer, repeated on Tuesday there was no need to pump more or for member states to gather ahead of the group's scheduled September meeting.
(Reuters, 17/07/2007)