SINGAPORE - Oil prices fell in Asian trade Monday as worries over demand and the global economic recovery weighed on investors' minds, analysts said.
New York's main futures contract, light sweet crude for delivery in March, was down 13 cents to $72.76 a barrel.
London's Brent North Sea crude for March delivery dropped 16 cents to $71.30 per barrel.
Investors remained concerned over demand woes even as the United States, the world's largest energy consumer, reported Friday its economy grew at 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter, analysts said.
Tony Nunan, a risk manager with Mitsubishi Corp in Tokyo, said although US fourth economic growth was good, underlying energy demand remained weak in the world's biggest economy.
The United States Commerce Department report on gross domestic product (GDP) showed the strongest growth in six years, even though consumer spending, the traditional driver of economic activity, remained sluggish.
The big GDP gains came in large part from businesses ramping up production to rebuild inventories, which economists say may skew the picture of overall activity but is a normal part of recovery. Inventories accounted for 3.39 percentage points of GDP.
"The oil market is still concerned about the high (oil) inventories and the economic recovery," Nunan said.
The GDP report is a key release for the market because the United States is the biggest oil-consuming nation.
