Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| An oil rig is silhouetted against the sunset in St. Lawrence, Texas May 9, 2008. 
 
 PARIS (Reuters) - Oil consumer nations on Thursday announced a surprise release from strategic government petroleum stockpiles in a bid to push down fuel prices and underpin the global economy. 
 
 The 28-member International Energy Agency said it would release 60 million barrels a day over an initial 30 days to fill the gap left by the disruption to Libya's output. 
 
 The United States will provide half the volumes from its huge 727-million barrel crude reserve, about 1.5 days of U.S. consumption, with Europe supplying 30 pct in crude and refined products and the rest from Pacific OECD nations. 
 
 The release, only the third in the IEA's 37-year history, is a blow for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and in particular for its biggest producer, Saudi Arabia, a close U.S. ally. 
 
 Despite Saudi efforts, the producer cartel failed to raise output at a meeting on June 8 leaving Riyadh to pump more unilaterally. 
 
 Before the OPEC meeting Riyadh had discussed a crude swap with the United States that would have seen U.S. reserves supplied to Europe, but failed to reach agreement. 
 
 "The move is significant as it represents a reach by member countries for the remedy of last resort to high prices," said U.S. energy analyst John Kilduff at Again Capital. 
 
 "Clearly the energy price spike is being cited as the reason for the economic slowdown and this is reaction to that. The Libyan outage provides good cover." 
 
 OPEC member Libya was exporting about 1.2 million bpd before the rebellion that brought its oil industry to a standstill. 
 
 "This supply disruption has been underway for some time and its effect has become more pronounced as it has continued," said the IEA. Libya was likely to remain off the market for the rest of 2011, it said. 
 
 "Greater tightness in the oil market threatens to undermine the fragile global economic recovery," the IEA said. 
 
 PRICE IMPACT UNCERTAIN 
 
 Oil prices traded $7.07 a barrel lower for benchmark Brent crude at $107.14 and U.S. crude fell $4.68 a barrel to $91.73 a barrel. 
 
 With world oil stocks at comfortably high levels by historical standards, oil analysts were divided on whether prices would fall further or not. 
 
 "I think the IEA is trying to act like a central bank," said Dominick Chirichella at New York's Energy Management Institute. "I don't think anyone will be comfortable being long oil ... We may see (U.S.) oil trading in the $80s very soon." 
 
 But Carl Larry at Blue Ocean brokerage in New York said prices might not have much further to fall. 
 
 "This is an economic stimulus ... in oil dollars," said Larry. "On the other hand I think we have confirmed the bottom of the oil market here at $109 for Brent and $90 for WTI." 
 
 DEPARTURE FOR IEA 
 
 The decision appears to represent a departure for the IEA from previous emergency releases and will not go down well with OPEC. 
 
 In the 1990-1991 Gulf conflict when Iraq invaded Kuwait much larger volumes of crude were shut. When Hurricane Katrina in 2005 hit U.S. refineries the IEA release consisted mostly of European refined products to the United States. 
 
 "There is no reason to do this," said a senior Gulf Arab OPEC delegate. 
 
 "The market is not short of supply. Kuwait and the Saudi Arabia have been raising production but there have not been many buyers. The IEA is just playing politics with the U.S." 
 
 Leading U.S. oil companies appeared to share that view. 
 
 The American Petroleum Institute which represents Exxon and Chevron among others said the plan was "ill timed" and "makes little sense" because there was no supply emergency. 
 
 IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said the action was intended to work in tandem with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab producers. 
 
 "Our stocks release is intended to complement the action of those key producers to fill the gap. Together producer and consumers will have taken concrete steps," Tanaka said. 
 
 The agency will review the need for a further release in a month. 
 
 "The IEA will continue to watch further developments and we will use the next 30 days to reassess the situation," said Tanaka. 
 
 (additional reporting by Amena Bakr, Alex Lawler, Barbara Lewis, Salem Gebrekidan, Antonita Devotta, Timothy Gardner and Ayesha Rascoe, writing by Richard Mably) ||||| SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Crude futures slumped Thursday after the U.S. and other members of the International Energy Agency said they will release 60 million barrels of oil into world markets in the coming month to counter lost production in Libya. 
 
 Crude for August delivery CL1Q dropped $4.39, or 4.6%, to settle at $91.02 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It had traded as low as $89.69 a barrel earlier. 
 
 Oil prices plunge 5% (5:57) U.S. and the IEA release oil reserves, dropping the price of crude to under $90. But there is some good news to be found, as the move could work as a self-stimulus for the U.S., MarketWatch's Dave Callaway explains. 
 
 That was oil’s lowest settlement since Feb. 18. 
 
 The United States will release half of the 60 million barrels of oil. The product will come from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which stands at capacity and at its highest level ever holding 727 million barrels. 
 
 This is the third time in the IEA’s history that its members have decided to release stocks, the latest time being the aftermath of hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005. See analysis of IEA‘s latest move. 
 
 “We are taking this action in response to the ongoing loss of crude oil due to supply disruptions in Libya and other countries and their impact on the global economic recovery,” U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “As we move forward, we will continue to monitor the situation and stand ready to take additional steps if necessary.” 
 
 The IEA estimated that the civil war in Libya had removed 132 million barrels of light, sweet crude from the market by the end of May. Before the uprising, Libya produced about 1.6 million barrels of oil a day and exported roughly 1.1 million barrels a day. 
 
 The decision was “the final nail in the coffin” for embattled oil markets, said Phil Flynn, an analyst with PFG Best. 
 
 Oil prices already had been hit by weak macroeconomic data from China, a sobering speech by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. growth-forecast cuts in the previous session, as well as a stronger dollar, he said. 
 
 Reuters Private security contractors patrol the U.S. Department of Energy's Strategic Petroleum Reserve in Bryan Mound, Texas in this May 20, 2008 photo. 
 
 “The market was already bearish,” Flynn said. “The market is concerned about weakened demand in China, U.S. and Europe.” 
 
 After the 2005 hurricanes, the U.S. made available 30 million barrels of oil through a notice of sale Sept. 6, 2005. Of those, 11 million barrels were sold. The U.S. Energy Department received 14 bids from seven companies to sell the crude, but only five bids were accepted. The first delivery took place in late September of that year. 
 
 Analysts expect this year’s reserve sales to also be conducted in a similar fashion, through bids . 
 
 Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar surged against its major rivals and Wall Street suffered sharp losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.17% was down more than 100 points. Read more in Market Snapshot. 
 
 The dollar index DXY, +0.01% which measures the U.S. unit against a basket of six other major currencies, rose to 75.581 from 74.784 late Wednesday. 
 
 The dollar tends to move inversely to dollar-priced commodities such as oil. Read more about currencies action. 
 
 Growth worries have been weighed on the oil market, and on Wednesday. Bernanke said the slowdown in the U.S. economy had been due to temporary factors, but that other issues may persist into 2012. Read more about central-bank chief’s remarks. 
 
 Investors short the yuan (3:01) A contrarian group of investors believe that the outlook on China's economy is too optimistic, and hope to make millions by betting that the yuan will soon fall. (Photo: Reuters.) 
 
 The Fed cut its growth forecast for the second time this year, as the midpoint of its 2011 gross domestic projection is now 2.8%, down from 3.2% in April and 3.65% in January. It also cut 2012 growth projections. 
 
 Thursday’s macroeconomic data from around the world gave little reason for optimism. 
 
 China’s manufacturing activity eased in June to its slowest rate of expansion in 11 months, but stayed above the level signaling contraction, according to a survey published Thursday. Read more on China’s PMI. 
 
 Closer to home, weekly jobless claims in the U.S rose to 429,000, the Labor Department said Thursday. Read more about jobless claims. 
 
 Sales of new homes in America slipped 2.1%. Read more about new-home sales. 
 
 Other energy products tracked oil’s sharp declines. Natural-gas futures had a reason of their own: A weekly government report on inventories showed a higher-than-expected rise in supplies. 
 
 The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported an increase of 98 billion cubic feet of the product for the week ending June 17. Analysts polled by Platts expected an increase between 87 and 91 Bcf. 
 
 Natural gas for July delivery NG11N declined 12 cents, or 2.9%, to settle at $4.19 per million British thermal units. 
 
 July heating-oil futures HO1N fell 17 cents, or 5.9%, at $2.78 a gallon. July gasoline futures RB1N lost 14 cents, or 4.6%, at $2.84 a gallon.
– The International Energy Agency will release 60 million barrels of oil over the next month, in a bid to “offset the Libyan disruption,” the group announced today. The oil will come from the strategic reserves of the IEA’s 28 member nations, and will be portioned out at a rate of 2 million barrels per day, Reuters reports. It’s the third time since its inception during the ‘70s oil crisis that the IEA has moved to goose the supply, and the executive director says he expects it to ensure “a soft landing for the world economy.” Oil prices fell 5.5% after the announcement, to $90.21 a barrel, reports MarketWatch.