Crude-oil futures fell Monday, coming under selling pressure for the first session in four and declining from their highest level in six months, on worries that the recent rally will be reversed by rising oil inventories. Crude for June delivery was down 90 cents, or 1.5%, to $57.73 a barrel in North American electronic trading, making back some ground after having fallen more than 3% to $56.78 earlier. The contract ended at $58.63 on Friday, the highest closing price for a front-month contract since Nov. 11. Crude had rallied more than 10% last week, moving up in spite of government data that showed U.S. crude inventories at their highest level since September 1990. Crude inventories in the U.S., the biggest oil consumer, rose to more than 375 million barrels in the week ended May 1, the Energy Information Administration reported last week. "Prevailing economic conditions do not support a sustainable high oil price," said Commerzbank analyst Barbara Lambrecht in a note. Meanwhile, oil demand also dropped sharply compared with the same week a year ago, the EIA reported. The EIA will report its weekly U.S. petroleum update on Wednesday. "It has been a long time since any economic data signaled a near-term rise in petroleum demand, and there isn't any now," said James Williams, an economist at energy research firm WTRG Economics. "It is difficult to see prices staying near the current level for more than a few weeks or months." Also in energy trading, June-reformulated gasoline fell 3.93 cents, or 2.3%, to $1.6662 a gallon, and June heating oil sank 0.7 cent, or 0.6%, to $1.5112 a gallon. Natural gas for June delivery fell 3.4 cents, or 0.8%, to $4.277 per million British thermal units. The contract for natural gas rallied 21.6% last week.

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