VINACHEM

Oil slid from the highest close intwo weeks in New York as investors sought to profit from crude’s5.8 percent advance in two days.

Futures slipped as much as 0.5 percent after climbing 0.9percent yesterday. Prices are declining in New York as theyapproach technical resistance at $92.75 a barrel, according todata compiled by Bloomberg. U.S. crude stockpiles probably fellby 1.6 million barrels last week, according to a Bloomberg Newssurvey of nine analysts before an Energy Department reporttomorrow. Tropical storm Ernesto was forecast to become ahurricane as it heads for Mexico’s Bay of Campeche.

“If you come up to the topside then naturally you’re goingto see people take profit,” said Jonathan Barratt, the chiefexecutive officer of Barratt’s Bulletin, a commodity-marketsnewsletter in Sydney, who predicts West Texas Intermediate oilfaces technical resistance at $92.50 a barrel.

Oil for September delivery slid as much as 42 cents to$91.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange and was at $91.91 at 2:28 p.m. Singapore time. Itsettled yesterday at $92.20, the highest level since July 19.Prices are 7 percent lower this year.

Brent crude for September settlement was at $109.35 abarrel, down 20 cents, on the London-based ICE Futures Europeexchange. The European benchmark’s premium to West TexasIntermediate was at $17.45 from $17.35 yesterday.

Fibonacci Retracement

Prices are sliding after nearing the 50-percent Fibonacciretracement of the rise to the March intraday high of $110.55 abarrel from the October 2011 low of $74.95. Crude halted anadvance near the same indicator last month. Sell orders tend tobe clustered near chart-resistance levels.

Tropical Storm Ernesto was forecast to strengthen on itspath to the Bay of Campeche, home to most of Mexico’s crudeproduction. The hurricane center’s tracking map shows Ernestomaking landfall tomorrow on the northern coast of Belize,crossing the Yucatan into the Bay of Campeche as a tropicalstorm and then returning to land in southern Mexico.

Petroleos Mexicanos, Mexico’s state-owned oil company, haswells in the Bay of Campeche including the Cantarell and Ku-Maloob-Zaap production areas. Mexico was the third-largest oilexporter to the U.S. in 2011, supplying 1.1 million barrels aday, data from the U.S. Energy Department show.

Chevron Refinery

Separately, Chevron Corp. (CVX) said it contained a fire thatbroke out in the crude unit at its Richmond refinery, thelargest in Northern California.

The company was bringing down units after a blaze at theNo. 4 crude unit started yesterday around 6:15 p.m. local time,according to a person with direct knowledge of the operation whoasked not to be identified because the information isn’t public.

Flames were brought under control as of 10:30 p.m. localtime, and all employees at the refinery have been accounted for,said Melissa Ritchie, a Chevron spokeswoman at the plant. Theplant reported an evacuation after the fire broke out, a filingwith the California Emergency Management Agency shows.