Energy Prices Continue Falling

A U.S. government report Thursday that natural gas inventories were growing knocked down energy prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Natural gas for November delivery fell 4 percent to $12.977 per million Btu.

The Energy Department said supplies of natural gas climbed 75 billion cubic feet for the week ending Oct. 14 to a current level of 3.062 trillion cubic feet.

The prices of other hydrocarbon commodities followed gas down.

High-quality crude oil fell below the psychologically important $60 level to $59.85 per barrel, and heating oil hit a five-week low at $1.865 per gallon.

Gasoline declined 6.38 cents to $1.6125 per gallon.

Prospects for more energy price declines gained support, with Steve Forbes, the editor of Forbes business magazine, for example, publicly predicting $35 per barrel crude oil by next year.