Crude oil prices fell sharply Thursday, settling below $49 per barrel, as traders cheered the rising US petroleum inventories, Xinhua reported.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude oil futures for June delivery fell 1.91 dollars to end at $48.54 a barrel, the lowest close since February 18.

Meanwhile, on London's International Petroleum Exchange, the June Brent crude futures contract dropped 1.73 dollars to settle at $48.34 a barrel.

The downward pressure increased as traders further digested the US energy inventory data. The department of energy said Thursday that US crude stockpiles rose 2.7 million barrels to 329.7 million, the highest since July 1999.

US crude supplies had increased in 12 of the last 13 weekly reports. Stockpiles of gasoline and distillate fuel, a category that included heating oil and diesel, also rose.

The department of energy also lowered its estimate of oil prices this year by 6.2 percent to an average of $51.36 a barrel. The price for West Texas Intermediate crude was cut from the $54.74 a barrel estimated in April.

"We're going to start testing the $45 area, which is the February low and where we took off from," said a senior energy risk manager in New York. "If we can break through support there, prices will head toward $40.25, the December low."  

Oil prices had fallen for a second day in New York. Futures had declined 17 percent since reaching $58.28 a barrel April 4, the highest since the contract began in 1983. The oil price was up 19 percent from a year ago. 

--Indo-Asian News Service