Oil dropped a second day as Europe struggled to tame its debt crisis and the Federal Reserve said companies were increasingly pessimistic about the U.S. economy, stoking speculation commodities demand may falter. Brent’s premium to New York prices widened. December futures fell as much as 0.6 percent, extending yesterday’s 2.5 percent slump. U.S. fuel use fell 2.2 percent to the lowest since May last week while crude stockpiles shrank, the Energy Department said. A French-German split over Europe’s rescue strategy emerged as finance ministers prepare to meet tomorrow and the Fed said yesterday that U.S. companies reported more doubt about the strength of the nation’s recovery. “The market rejected the sizable draw in inventories and decided to focus on what’s happening with Germany and France,” said Jonathan Barratt, a managing director of Commodity Broking Services Pty in Sydney. “The disagreement put the cat among the pigeons. Economic growth will be hurt even further because there’s no resolution out of Europe.” Crude oil for December delivery, the most actively traded contract, slipped as much as 54 cents to $85.75 a barrel and was at $85.86, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 2:10 p.m. Sydney time. The contract yesterday fell $2.24 to $86.29, the lowest since Oct. 13. November futures, which expire today, were at $85.68. Brent oil for December settlement was at $108.37 a barrel, down 2 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. That pushed the spread between the December Brent and Nymex crude contracts to $22.51, compared with $22.10 yesterday and a record high of $27.88 on Oct. 14. Fuel Demand U.S. fuel use fell 2.2 percent to 18.3 million barrels a day last week, the least since May, the Energy Department said yesterday in its weekly report. Crude stockpiles dropped 4.73 million barrels to 332.9 million. They were forecast to rise 2 million barrels, according to the median of 13 analyst estimates in a Bloomberg News survey. Gasoline inventories declined 3.32 million to 206.3 million. They were forecast to slide 1.5 million barrels, according to the survey. Supplies of distillate fuel, a category that includes oil and diesel, decreased 4.27 million barrels compared with an estimate for a 1.5 million decline. Oil prices have dropped 6.3 percent in New York this year amid concern that the faltering U.S. economy and Europe’s debt crisis will curb raw material demand. Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs a group of euro-area finance ministers, indicated an impromptu meeting of European leaders in Frankfurt last night failed to resolve differences over the region’s rescue plan. To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alexander Kwiatkowski in Singapore at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net

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