NEW YORK, Dec. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The price of oil fell to its lowest level in more than two weeks on Friday on forecasts of warmer-than-expected weather in the United States, potentially leading to weaker demand for heating fuel during the current winter.

    Light sweet crude for January delivery declined 1.93 dollars tosettle at 58.06 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That is the lowest close for the front-month contract since Nov. 30, when futures settled at 57.33 dollars.

    February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange fell 2.27dollars to settle at 57.13 dollars a barrel.

    For the week, crude oil futures were down 2 percent.

    On Wednesday the US Department of Energy said domestic crude inventories stood at 321.2 million barrels for the week ending Dec.9, or 11.7 percent above year-ago levels.

    Long-range forecasts from the US National Weather Service, issued late Thursday, predicted above-normal temperatures in most of the United States from January through to March.

    Heating oil futures declined by 5.53 cents to 1.7320 dollars a gallon, while gasoline futures dropped by 4.79 cents to 1.5689 dollars a gallon.

    Natural gas fell 14.8 cents to 13.633 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet. The contract, which reached an all-time high of 15.78 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet on Tuesday, had fallen 89.8 cents to 13.781 dollars per 1,000 cubic feet on Thursday despite a US Energy Department report showing natural gas inventories fell 202 billion cubic feet to 2.96 trillion cubic feet last week.

    US stockpiles of heating fuel are 13 percent higher than at thesame stage last year, however, which should prove adequate for theheightened winter demand, analysts said.

    On Friday, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries raised its forecast for oil demand next year by 100,000 barrels a day to 84.9 million barrels a day as global economies proved more resilient to high oil prices than previously expected. Enditem