By Victor Reklaitis and Michael Kitchen, MarketWatch NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Oil futures dropped sharply on Tuesday following a downbeat monthly forecast from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Crude oil for July delivery CLN3 -1.48% fell $1.55, or 1.7%, to $94.22 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. London-traded Brent July crude UK:LCON3 -1.87% slumped $1.95, or 1.9%, to $102 a barrel on ICE Futures. The move added to Brent’s 0.6% drop on Monday, as the North Sea’s Buzzard oil field returned to full production. The latest OPEC report predicted that global oil demand would increase by 900,000 barrels per day in 2013’s second half. That’s an improvement from an increase of 700,000 barrels per day in this year’s first half. “However, risks are skewed toward the downside,� the report said. “In the OECD, this is due largely to the weak economic outlook for Europe, as well as to any possible setbacks in the U.S. economic recovery.� The report was “definitely a bit bearish,� Tariq Zahir, managing member of Tyche Capital Advisors, told MarketWatch Tuesday. He also said in an email that one line in the report that stood out to him was risks being skewed to the downside. The markets now await weekly U.S. supply data from the American Petroleum Institute, due out at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. In addition, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is scheduled to release its weekly data on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Eastern. Elsewhere in the energy complex, July gasoline RBN3 +0.74% dropped 5 cents to trade at $2.79 a gallon, while July heating oil HON3 -1.51% slid 4 cents to $2.85 a gallon. Natural gas for July delivery NGN13 -0.92% fell 4 cents to trade at $3.76 per million British thermal units. Victor Reklaitis is a New York-based markets writer for MarketWatch. Follow him on Twitter @VicRek. Michael Kitchen is Asia editor for MarketWatch and is based in Los Angeles. You can follow him on Twitter at @KitchenNews.

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