Oil fell, trimming its first weekly gain in three in New York on forecasts that a projected gain in U.S. jobs last month was probably too small to bring down the unemployment rate in the world’s largest crude user. Futures are set for a 3.9 percent gain this week. U.S. employment rose by 55,000 workers last month, according to a Bloomberg News survey before data due today. Still, the jobless rate remained at 9.1 percent for a third month. The European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet yesterday announced a bond-purchase program to tackle the region’s debt crisis. “We’re not very optimistic for the jobs numbers; maybe that’s another trigger for oil to go lower,” said Sintje Diek, an analyst at HSH Nordbank in Hamburg who correctly predicted in January that prices would fall in the second half of the year. “Levels of around $100 for Brent are some kind of marker for the market. If we have some kind of solution to the debt crisis, oil could remain around here for the rest of the year.” Crude for November delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange was down 34 cents at $82.25 a barrel at 9:19 a.m. London time after climbing as high as $83.08. The contract yesterday climbed $2.91 to $82.59, for a two-day gain of 9.1 percent, the biggest since Feb. 22 to Feb. 23. Brent oil for November settlement fell 0.7 percent to $104.98 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The European benchmark contract was at a premium of $22.84 to New York crude, compared with a record of $26.87 on Sept. 6. Non-Farm Payrolls The Labor Department will release data on non-farm payrolls at 8:30 a.m. in Washington today. “If we get a good print on the jobs number, we could get a bit of rally in oil here,” said Jeremy Friesen, a commodity strategist at Societe Generale SA in Hong Kong. “We expect it to be a positive surprise versus consensus, and that should give some life to oil.” The Energy Department said crude inventories fell 4.7 million barrels to 336.3 million last week, the lowest since the period ending Jan. 21. An increase of 1.5 million barrels was expected, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Brent crude futures have slipped 8.9 percent since Sept. 15 amid concerns the debt crisis in Europe will crimp demand for fuels. Prices have yet to find a floor because of “damage” to consumer and business confidence, SocGen said in a report yesterday from analyst Michael Wittner in New York. He reiterated his forecast that the European benchmark will trade between $90 and $100 a barrel for the rest of this year. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will export about 22.72 million barrels a day in the four weeks to Oct. 22, little changed from the 22.74 million a day shipped in the month to Sept. 24, Halifax, England-based Oil Movements said yesterday in a report. Shipments typically rise at this time of year as refiners prepare to boost production of winter fuels. The figures exclude Ecuador and Angola. To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sharples in Melbourne at bsharples@bloomberg.net; Grant Smith in London at gsmith52@bloomberg.net To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net

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